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THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 



THE EX-KAISER 
IN EXILE 



BY 



LADY NORAH BENTINCK 



ILLUSTRATED 




NEW xBr YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



FOREWORD 

" It was rather a cessation of war than a beginning of Peace." 

Tacitus. 

I HAVE received many letters since I began to 
write the articles which are incorporated in this 
book. Some have been critical, while others, on the 
contrary, have been of the most charming character. 

The first sort, the critical, were on the lines 
that I seemed to write in a not unsympathetic 
way of the ex-Kaiser. The writers remarked that 
it was incomprehensible to people who had lost 
dear ones in the War that I should put the chief 
instigator of all its horrors in a favourable light. 

Perhaps these critics — ^whose views I respect 
exceedingly — ^thought that I had not suffered loss, 
and was therefore not in a position to feel as 
acutely as they did that the treatment meted out 
to William ii. in Holland was too good for him. 
May I be allowed to mention here that I did 
suffer loss in the persons of my youngest brother, 
Robert Noel, Captain, Royal Fusiliers, who died of 
illness in British East Africa during the campaign 
of von Lettow-Vorbeck, 1918 ; of my husband's 



vi THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

brother, Henry Bentinck, Major, Coldstream 
Guards, who died of wounds received at the Battle 
of the Somme, September 1916 ; of my first cousin, 
Maurice Dease, V.C., Lieutenant, Royal Fusiliers, 
who was killed at Mons, 23rd August 1914 ; and of 
my first cousin, Roger Noel Bellingham, who died 
in France, 4th March 1915. These two cousins 
were Irishmen. 

I would like here to mention that in his recent 
book. The Lives of Francis and Riversdale Grenfell, 
Mr. John Buchan has made a mistake. He 
mentions Francis Grenfell as being the first British 
officer to whom the great honour fell of earning 
the first V.C. in the European War. 

Gallant Francis Grenfell fell on 24^/i August 
1914, and was mentioned in the Gazette of 17th 
November as having won this distinction, whereas 
Maurice Dease was killed in command of his guns, 
holding a bridge over which our soldiers were 
retreating, at Mons on 2Srd August, and he was 
mentioned in the Gazette of 16th November as 
having been awarded the V.C. 

So the unique distinction of being the first 
officer in the British Army to win the Victoria 
Cross must be transferred from Francis Grenfell 
to Maurice Dease. 

I have tried to show the ex-Kaiser as impar- 
tially as possible. George Meredith's lines seem 
to explain better than any words of mine exactly 
what I mean : 



FOREWORD vii 

"I have studied men from my topsyturvy. 
Close, and, I reckon, rather true. 
Some are fine fellows : some, right scurvy : 
Most, a dash between the two." 

That the impressions I gathered of his ideas from 
the people amongst whom he Hved in unique 
circumstances for eighteen months when I stayed 
at Amerongen last summer (1920) should have 
ever materialised into articles, much less should 
have become a book, was unthought of by me 
in December 1920. 

Some one suggested then that I should record 
these impressions ; that they would be of interest 
as a tiny mosaic in the life-story of this much- 
discussed man, and that when, after he has been 
gathered to his fathers, his full history comes to 
be written my humble chronicle may perhaps not 
be entirely without value. 

I feel it is presumptuous that I should set down 
what I heard and saw in face of the many already 
existing annals, and those which are in process 
of being written by persons whose knowledge of 
the character in question highly qualifies them for 
the task. 

I would like here to mention that I never took 
any notes for the making of this book, which will, 
of course, be obvious from my explanation of how 
the articles came to be written ; neither have I 
ever in my life kept a diary, so that all which 
I have written in the following pages is from 
memory, with the exception, naturally, of the his- 



viii THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

torical facts taken from books of reference and 
Memoirs which I quote in the text. 

One word more. Many writers in their Prefaces 
take the opportunity to thank their friends for 
their help in getting data and facts for their 
work. With the exception of the Directors of the 
Weekly Dispatch, whose courtesy made the rather 
difficult writing of the articles as pleasant as 
possible, I have no one to thank I And so I will 
offer my gratitude to the magnificent British 
Navy and Army for giving me the name for my 
book. For the concrete result of their dogged 
and gallant fighting with the help of our Allies 
most surely is — The Ex-Kaiser in Exile. 

Glorious, lovely old England ! I have travelled 
in the five continents and I have never seen a 
country to equal you for beauty on a perfect day 
in June. Once more your splendid sons have 
been victorious and have shown the world how 
dangerous it is to attack their Motherland. You 
have conquered in war and now you must 
conquer in peace. " If England to itself do 
rest but true." This can be done, and how? 
By work. 

" He that will not live by toil 
Has no right on English soil." 

KiNGSLEY. 

For, as Henry Newbolt says, " The work of the 
world must still be done." And if we do each 
our honest share we will keep our heritage as 




THE HON. ROBERT NOEL 

Captain, Royal Fusiliers. Born 1888 — Died 19 18 

at Masassi, B.E.A., on active service European 

War. Youngest son of Charles George Noel, 

Earl of Gainsborough. (My brother.) 



See page V/ (Foreword). 



FOREWORD ix 

Shakespeare described her four hundred years ago. 
In reading the Hues it is impossible not to be struck 
with delight and wonder, for we have indeed been 
able to keep our England as the other William 
(the greatest William) described her — when most 
of the rest of Europe has crumbled. 

" This royal throne of kings, this scepter 'd isle. 
This earth of Majesty, this seat of Mars, 
This other Eden, demi-paradise ; 
This fortress, built by nature for herself. 
Against infection from the hand of war ; 
This happy breed of men, this little world ; 
This precious stone set in the silver sea. 
Which serves it in the ofi&ce of a wall. 
Or as a moat defensive to a house. 
Against the envy of less happier lands ; 
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England." 

King Richard //. 

NORAH BENTINCK. 

Yew Tree House, Exton, Oakham, 
1 92 1, 



"The Lord also spake unto Joshua^ saying, . . . 
Appoint out for you cities of refuge, . . . 
And when he that doth flee unto one of those 
cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of 
the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears 
of the elders of that city, they shall take him in 
. . . and give him a place, that he may dwell 
among them. 

And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then 
they shall not deliver the slayer up into his 
hand ; . . . " — Joshua xx. 1, 2, 3, 4. 

"Then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of 
refuge for you; that the slayer may flee thither, 
which killeth any person at unawares. 
And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from 
the avenger ; that the manslayer die not, until he 
stand before the congregation in judgment." 

NuMBKRS XXXV. 11, 12. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



The Ex-Kaiser in Exile . . . . Frontispiece 

The ex-Kaiser walking in the grounds at Amerongen, with his 
Adjutant-General Dommes. 

FACING PAGE 

The Hon. Robert Noel ..... viii 
Captain, Royal Fusiliers. Born 1888 ; died 191 8 at Masassi, 
B.E.A., on active service, European War. Youngest son of 
Charles George Noel, Earl of Gainsborough. (My brother.) 

Lady Nor ah Bentinck . . . . .1 

Daughter of Charles George Noel, Earl of Gainsborough. 

Hans Willem Bentinck . . . . .4 

1st Earl of Portland. Common ancestor to the Counts Bentinck 
and the Cavendish-Bentincks. Born 1649; died 1709. 

Charles Anthony Ferdinand ... .8 

5th Count Bentinck. Lieut. -General, Coldstream Guards. Born 
1793 ; died 1864. Served in Peninsular War and at Waterloo. 
Married Countess Mechtilde of Waldeck and Pyjrmont. 

Henry ....... 8 

6th Count Bentinck (eldest son of 5th Count). Owner of Mid- 
dachten till 1874, when he resigned his birthright. Lieut. -Colonel, 
Coldstream Guards. Born 1846; died 1903. 

Captain Robert Bentinck ..... 8 
Eldest son of 6th Count. Born 1875. (My husband.) 

Henry Noel Bentinck . . . . .8 

Aged 9 months. Born 1919. (My son.) 

xiii 



xiv THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

FACING PAGE 

MiDDACHTEN ....... 9 

Which belonged to my husband's father till he resigned it in 1874. 

Generals who came from Spa with the Ex-Kaiser . l6 ' 

Walking outside the walls of Amerongen, saying "No, no I" to 
the photographer. 

The Ex-Kaiser's "Sanctuary," Amerongen . . 24 ■ 

Showing outside moat. 

Amerongen . . . . . • . §4 -^ 

Showing double bridges — the only possible access to the house — 
thus making it a peculiarly safe retreat, 

Amerongen (Front View) . . . . .28 

Showing the steps up which the Emperor walked on his arrival on 
November nth, 1918. 

DooRN House . . . . • .28 

The present home (i 921) of the ex-Kaiser. 

Fac-simile of the Abdication signed by the Ex-Kaiser 
AT Amerongen . . . . • .32 

Room where Abdication was signed . . .33 

The Ex-Kaiser in Exile . . . . .48 

The ex-Kaiserin hands the ex -Kaiser a cablegram in the grounds 
of Amerongen. General Dommes, the Adjutant to the ex-Kaiser, 
is the other figure. 

William II. . . . . . . .60 

Before the Great War. 

William II. . . . . . . .60 

During the Great War, 1914-19x8. 

William II. . . . . . . .60 

After the Abdication' 



ILLUSTRATIONS xv 

FACING PAGE 

Major Henry Bentinck . . . . .64 

Coldstream Guards. Born 1881 ; died of wounds in France, 1916. 
(My husband's brother.) Third son of Lieut. -Colonel Count 
Bentinck (6th Count). His letters have been published under the 
title of Letters of Major Henry Bentinck. 

Frau von Ilsemann . . . . . .112 

Geb. Gravin Bentinck. 

Hauptmann von Ilsemann . . . . .112 

Adjutant to the ex-Kaiser. 

On their wedding-day, October 7th, 1920. 

Invitation to the Bal-bei-hof in Vienna . . .124 

Showing the mistake made in the writing of my name. 

Programme of the Dancing . . . .124 

At the Bal-bei-hof. 

Menu of the Supper ..... 124 

At the Bal-bei-hof in Vienna at which I was present. It is identical 
with that used during the reign of Maria-Theresa, the last of the 
Hapsburgs (1717-1780). Her father (Charles VI.) it was who 
conferred a Countship on the Hon. William Bentinck on December 
24th, 1732. 

William the Silent . . . . . .148 

Prince of Orange. Born 1533 ; murdered, 1584, by Balthazar 
Gerard. From whom by his third wife, Catherine de Bourbon, 
are descended the ex-Kaiser and his late host, Count Godard 
Bentinck. 

Lady Norah Bentinck . . . . .152 

With her children Brydgytte Blanche, aged 3^, and Henry Noel, 
aged lo months (1920). 




(Photo. E. O. Hoppi.) 
LADY NORAH BENTINCK 
(Daughter of Charles George Noel, Earl of Gainsborough). 



CHAPTER I 

" I would merely remark that history blamed the Dutch authori- 
ties who surrendered Charles i.'s murderers to his son, whilst no 
blame has ever been attached to those Dutchmen who honoured 
Charles n. when he was a refugee in Holland." — Sir Walter 
TowNLEY in the New World, September 1920. 

FoREWARNiNGS may often be given to us without 
our realising their significance. Count Godard 
Bentinck, owner of Amerongen, and one of a 
shooting party on a neighbouring estate in the 
second week of November 1918, could not account 
for the feeling that impelled him to return home 
with his daughter on Saturday the 9th, instead 
of staying over the Sunday as he originally 
intended ; but he obeyed the impulse without 
at the time thinking much about it. 

At two o'clock next afternoon, while the rain 
came down heavily outside, he was smoking a 
cigar in his library, with no particular preoccupa- 
tion to disturb his peace, when a servant opened 
the door and announced that a telephone call had 
been made for him. 

" Where from ? " asked the Count. 

" The Hague, Graaf ." 

Wondering what the call could possibly be 
about (for it was from the Dutch Foreign Office), 
he hurried downstairs, 

" Count Godard Bentinck ? " he heard on 
taking up the receiver. 

" Yes ; what is it ? " 



2 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

" The German Emperor has crossed the frontier. 
Will you take him in, also his suite of about thirty- 
persons, for a few days until a suitable lodging can 
be found for him ? " 

Sometimes in life supreme decisions have to be 
made — -decisions which afiect the whole of one's 
subsequent life. Mercifully they are rare. But 
on this day, 10th November 1918, when the tele- 
phone rang at Amerongen, Count Godard Bentinck 
had to make such a decision. 

This was indeed a thunderbolt ! He stood re- 
flecting for a few minutes on all the implications 
of the request ; and then said he was sorry he 
could not oblige, but would have to refuse. 

Here was news to stir a quiet life ! The first 
intimation of the crash of a great throne with the 
Emperor a fugitive in Holland. And particularly 
\yas it exciting to a Bentinck. 

Before going any further I propose giving a 
slight account of Count Godard Bentinck's family 
history, as it is a somewhat intricate one, and it is 
really not surprising that many mistakes have 
been made about him and his nationality during 
the last years. 

Originally the Bentincks were purely Dutch. 
They date from the twelfth century, when they 
were Knights of Guelderland, and they have never 
since those days failed in the male line. 

Early in the thirteenth century one Wicherus 
Benting (as the name was called in those days) was 
witness to the signature of Bishop Willibold of 
Utrecht at the foundation of Zwolle in 1233. He 
left a son, Willem, whose son, Helmich Benting, had 
five sons and two daughters. The fourth of these 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 3 

sons was Gerrit, who had a son named Hendrik. This 
man had four sons, the second of whom was Hendrik, 
who owned the Castle of Bentinck between 
Deventer and Zutphen, near Gorssel. His youngest 
son was again called Hendrik, and he was the 
owner of the Castle of " The Loo " (now belonging 
to the Queen of the Netherlands). And so they 
descended from father to son, though not always 
through the eldest son, till we come to Henry Baron 
Bentinck, who died in 1639. 

He had a large family consisting of six sons 
and two daughters. His fifth son was named 
Bernard, or Behrend, and his home was at Diepen- 
heim. His family outdid that of his father, his 
children numbering eleven, six of whom were sons. 

The third son was called Eusebius. From him 
is descended Guy, the present Baron Bentinck.^ 
He is an Englishman, and served in the Boer War 
and the Great War. He is the head of the whole 
family of Bentinck, representing the senior branch. 

The next brother of Eusebius Bentinck and the 
fifth son of Bernard was Hans Willem Bentinck. 
He was born in 1649, and during the reign of the 
Stadthalter, William of Orange, who later became 
William iii. of England, was taken into the Royal 
household as a page. 

As is well known, he became a great man. 
" Truest and noblest friend prince has ever had " 
were the words by which Macaulay described him. 
When William iii. went to England he took with 
him besides Bentinck two other Dutchmen — 
Keppel, a fascinating courtier whom he created 
Earl of Albemarle, and de Reede Ginkel, a soldier, 

* 1921. 



4 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

who after winning the battles of the Boyne and 
Athlone for his Dutch master was created Earl of 
Athlone. He was the owner of the_ Castles of 
Middachten and of Amerongen. 

At this point it is amusing to quote from an 
essay called " The Peerage " in a little volume by 
the late Right Hon. George W. E. Russell, entitled 
Collections and Recollections. He says : " The 
Revolution of 1688 brought its own element into 
the House of Lords, and descendants of William 
iii.*s Dutch valets are now numbered among the 
dukes and earls of England " (I). 

Baron Hans Willem Bentinck, whose family had 
been born and bred Dutch for five hundred years, 
was then created an English Earl by a Dutchman 
who had usurped the English throne, and married 
an Englishwoman, by whom he had two sons. The 
eldest of these died young, and the second son, 
Henry, succeeded to the family honours. He was 
created Duke of Portland by Queen Anne, and he 
married Lady Elizabeth Noel, eldest daughter and co- 
heir * of Wriothesley, second Earl of Gainsborough, 
whose father, Edward Noel, Viscount Campden, 
had been created an Earl by Charles ii. in 1661. 
He was also Baron Noel of Titchfield, near South- 
ampton, and it is from this source that the name of 
Titchfield came to belong to the family of Portland. 

On the death of his first wife in 1688, Willem 
Bentinck, Lord Portland, married again, his second 
wife being Jane Martha, Dowager Lady Berkeley 
of Stratton, and a daughter of Sir John Temple, 

» With her Bister Rachel, who married the second Duke of Beau- 
fort. The step-aunt of these two sisters was Lady Catherine Noel, 
who became first Duchess of Rutland. 




(From a picture hv Rigaud in the Louvre.) 
HANS WILLEM BENTINCK 

1st Earl of Portland. Common Ancestor to the Counts Bentinck and 
the Cavendish-Bentincks. Born 1649 — Died 1709. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 5 

Bart. By her he had one son, William, who was 
born at Whitehall in 1704. 

When he grew up he returned to Holland and 
reinstated himself as a Dutchman. He then went 
to Germany in search of a wife, and he eventually 
married Charlotte Sophie of Aldenburg, a reigning 
countess in her own right .^ 

In order to be able to marry her (his position 
as an Earl's younger son and a Dutch Baron not 
being considered high enough) he was created a 
Count by Charles vi. of Austria, who was also 
Roman Emperor.^ He was the father of Maria 
Theresa, and he failed in his endeavour, through 
the Pragmatic Sanction, to secure her the succession 
to the Imperial Crown. 

This is the reason that all his (William's) de- 
scendants are styled Counts of the Empire, for the 
man who originally gave the title, besides being a 
king, was the lay head of the Holy Roman Empire, 
which historic and ancient institution was given the 
coup de grace by Napoleon in 1804. The holding 
of this title brought him and his family into close 
connection with Germany, and since then their 
nationality has been a vexed question, though 
many of them were English by birth and have 
served both in the English Army and the Diplo- 
matic Service almost continuously since 1704. 
So we see that this William Bentinck was a Dutch 
Baron, an English Earl's son, and a Count of the 
Empire, which gave him and his descendants 

1 It was by this marriage that the branch of the Counts Bentinck 
(of which my husband is — ^by birth — the head) inherited sovereign 
rights in Europe. 

" Had this not been dono Charlotte Sophie would have had to 
forfeit her sovereign rights. 



6 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

nobility in England, Holland, Austria, and Germany. 
He had two sons, the eldest of whom. Christian 
Frederick, Count Bentinck, is the direct ancestor 
of Count Godard. Christian Frederick married 
Baroness Marie de Tuyll, and their son married 
Lady Jemima de Reede Ginkel, daughter of the 
fifth Earl of Athlone. This lady had a sister 
Lady Elizabeth who married Mr. Villiers, and 
at her death she left Amerongen to her sister's 
youngest grandson Godard. Thus it is that this 
now famous house came into the Bentinck family. 

Lady Jemima's son was Charles Anthony 
Ferdinand, Count Bentinck, and he married 
Countess Caroline of Waldeck-Pyrmont, a cousin 
of the Queen Dowager of Holland and the Duchess 
of Albany. Their fourth child and youngest son 
is Godard, present owner of Amerongen and host 
of the ex-Emperor William ii. 

So it will be seen that it is difficult to knoW 
where exactly to pin his nationality, as although 
the Bentincks are unquestionably a Dutch family 
their Countship is Holy Roman Empire and there- 
fore Teutonic. 

By a decree of the German Diet in 1845 it 
recognised the rights of the Counts Bentinck to 
the dignities of the mediatised ^ Houses of 

1 Mediatisation. — The deprivation in the case of several ecclesi- 
astical and lay principalities of Germany of their sovereign rights 
as Imperial free States in the years 1801-6, by making them subject 
to other German States. 

Thus the mediatised Lords (Seigneurs) of Germany, whether 
Princes or Counts of the Holy Roman Empire, have rights of 
equality of birth with the Royal Houses of Europe. Such families 
therefore rank higher than those of Battenberg, Mtinster, Bliicher, 
Billow, Bismarck, Pless, etc., who are described as Princely Houses, 
" non-souveraines " of Europe. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 7 

Germany with the style " Erlaucht," and on 22nd 
April 1886 a Royal permission was granted 
to this family to bear the title in England, 
and that all the descendants of the '"fifth Count 
Bentinck (my husband being his eldest grandson) 
should be entitled to bear the title of Count before 
their Christian names. Count Godard Bentinck's 
father, Major-General Count Bentinck (fifth 
Count), and his uncle. General Sir Henry Bentinck, 
both commanded the Coldstream Guards, and there 
are memorials to them in the Guards Chapel. 

Count Bentinck commanded the 2nd Battalion 
in 1843 and the 1st Battalion in 1846, and the 
same year he commanded the regiment. Sir Henry 
Bentinck commanded the 2nd Battalion in 1846 
and the 1st in 1848. In 1851 he commanded the 
regiment. 

In Lieutenant-Colonel Ross of Bladensburg's 
History of the Coldstream Guards we read : 

" The Guards Brigade, consisting of 3rd Grena- 
diers, 1st Coldstream, and 1st Scots, reached 
Malta en route for the Crimea in March 1854, 
commanded by Colonel (afterwards Major-General 
Sir Henry) Bentinck, who was appointed Brigadier- 
General that year. 

On 20th June 1854, when the Guards Brigade 
was at Aladyn, near Varno, Brigadier-General 
Bentinck, together with Colonels Hay and Cod- 
rington, were promoted Major- Generals, but Ben- 
tinck continued to command the Guards Brigade. 

On 24th August the Brigade embarked for the 
Crimea under Major-General Bentinck, and was 
1st Brigade of 1st Division, which was commanded 
by the Duke of Cambridge. Bentinck commanded 



8 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

the Guards Brigade in the Battles of Alma and 
Inkermann, during which last he was wounded. 

On 27th August 1855 he was invested with the 
Order of the Bath in the Crimea by Lord Stratford 
de Redclyffe, our Ambassador at Constantinople. 
He was groom-in-waiting to Queen Victoria and 
a Commander of the Legion of Honour. He died 
in 1878. His wife was Renira Antoinette, daughter 
of Sir James Hawkins- Whit shed, Bart., and the 
present ^ Duke of Portland is her nephew. 

Godard Bentinck's eldest brother, Henry, 
Count Bentinck, was also in the Coldstream 
Guards. By a family arrangement {traite de 
famille) in 1874 he resigned his primogeniture, and 
the family headship honours and fortune devolved 
on to his next brother, William. 

During the War my husband, who is the eldest 
son of the aforesaid Henry, Count Bentinck, 
served in the unattached cavalry; his second 
brother, Charles, is in the Diplomatic Service ; and 
his two younger brothers were in the family regi- 
ment. Henry died from wounds received at the 
Battle of the Somme, September 1916, in the 
historic Guards' attack. Of this memorable feat I 
should like to quote Mr. Beach Thomas, who was 
with the British Army in the field on 16th Sep- 
tember 1916: — 

" Among others who earned equal fame the 
Guards have gone into action, have won new 
fame ; and many names known through the 
length and breadth of the land will be found in 
the roll of honour. Something of the spirit of 
that fight should reach those who read the names. 

^ 1921. 



FOUR GENERATIONS 





^^ 



(CHARLES ANTHONY FERDINAND 

ktli Count Bentinck. Lieut .-General, Cold- 
stream Guards. Born 1793 — Died 1864. 
Served in Peniinsular War and at Waterloo. 
Married Countess Meclitilde of Waldeck 
and Pyrmont. Count Godard Bentinck is 
his fourth and youngest son. 



HENRY 

6th Count Bentinck. (Eldest Son of 5th 
Count.) Owner of Middachten till 1874, 
when he resigned his birthright. Lieut. - 
Colonel, Coldstream Guards. Born 1846 — 
Died 1903. 





(Photo, by Speaighi.) 
CAPTAIN ROBERT BENTINCK 
(Eldest Son of 6tii Count.) Born 1875. 
(My Husband.) 



(Photo, by Compton Collier.) 
HENRY NOEL BENTINCK 
(Aged 9 months.) Born 19 19. 
(My Son.) 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 9 

" ' It was worth living, even if I am killed 
to-morrow, just to have seen such men charge,' 
said one commanding officer, whose speech to his 
men after action will be remembered all their 
lives, almost syllable by syllable, by all who 
heard it. Nor in war at any time is any scene 
more moving than when, the battle over, a 
regiment lines up under some shelter in the misty 
dawn to take toll of the missing. However gaily 
men fight, at that moment they love not war. 
And the Guards fought the gayest fight of which 
ever I heard news or any troubadour dreamed ; 
and fought it against bitter odds, the odds of an 
open flank ; and won, inflicting more than they 
suffered. 

" For the first time in history three battalions 
of the Coldstream Guards went over in line. 
They were swept and raked by rifle and machine- 
gun fire from many directions, and all the while 
the shells fell right and left. For 200 yards the 
blast in their front and flank was enough to have 
stopped a locomotive. It did not stop the men. 
In the midst of this blast, of a sudden they came 
upon a trench from which ranks of enemy rose. 
The sight was all they needed to add the last 
touch to their fighting spirit. 

" The enemy fired rifles and threw bombs. 
The Guards used only the bayonet. Each man, 
they said, got his man. The enemy fought now 
in the open as well as below ground, and the sight 
of these new regiments, body to body, hand to 
hand, stabbing, hitting, even wrestling, so stirred 
the Irishmen coming up in support that they 
rushed forward at the double to take their part. 
Men, N.C.O.s, subalterns, commanding officers, 
doctors, artillery observers, burst into an in- 
credible shout, smothered by the noise of the guns, 
but like the swish of the shells savagely inspiriting. 



10 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

" The enemy had fought well. He thought 
he could stop the Guards ; but the bayonet was 
irresistible, and of a sudden the desperation of 
the struggle broke. ' We flushed 'em and they 
rose like a covey of partridges.' The battle 
became a chase. The prisoners who surrendered 
were just given leave to hurry back without escort 
to our lines, and took the permission at the gallop, 
to be rounded up like homing sheep away behind. 
One group went astray, headed off in its nervous- 
ness by other advancing troops, before it was 
again corralled off like any other half-wild animal. 
The fight and the chase went on, morning, day, 
and evening. Germans rose from mysterious 
holes and picked off isolated men. One Guards- 
man had a duel at sixty yards with a Bavarian 
sniper. Each fired three shots. The Guards- 
man's last went home and the German fell. 

" All this while, whether advancing or stopping 
in shell holes or trenches, officers greeted one 
another as if they were meeting in Piccadilly, 
with familiar greetings and Christian names and 
the common chaff of the regiments. 

"Some golden moments were vouchsafed in 
this immortal charge, which carried the Guards 
over a mile and more of shell-raked and bullet - 
raked desert. While they drove the Germans 
before them the sun, below the horizon when 
they started, had reached high noon. It lit a 
new landscape. A German battery was seen in 
action, the officers taking notes and the gunners 
shovelling shells into the breech. Enemy's trans- 
port trailed along the roads. Undamaged steeples 
rose from the midst of peaceful villages. But soon 
the panorama shifted like ' the baseless fabric of 
a vision.' The German guns limbered up and 
galloped off. The transport vanished, and just 
a little while later the village houses toppled and 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 11 

the homesteads merged into the general desolation 
of war. 

" Some figures emerge from the ruck of battle 
in almost ghostly silence. An officer who felt 
then and afterwards that he had never lived so 
splendid, so exhilarating a day in his life — such 
men do really exist — ^took no cover, but went 
exultingly forward to any nucleus of resistance 
he could discover. He killed man after man, some 
with the pistol, some with a stick. 

"One of his men, as great an athelete, if less 
endowed with Valkyrie spirit, rushed a machine- 
gun post, shot two of the men, bayoneted a third, 
and ' caught the fourth a clip with my fist.' 
Some rival of another company then claimed the 
captive machine gun ; but the Irishman settled 
the dispute by taking the weighty thing under 
his arm and carrying it back deliberately across 
the open. He did not stop till he had delivered 
it personally to the headquarters of his unit. 
While officers greeted one another with the natural 
exchange of social phrase, the men called out 
hilarious encouragement : ' Go it, Lilly whites,' 
' Go it. Ribs,' using the vocatives of the playing- 
field. But all day and night it was bitter fighting, 
as every man and every officer knew. 

" The enemy ran, but if -^as not allowed to 
pursue them. I heard an officer apologise, almost 
with tears, for the necessity of forbidding too 
long pursuit. Trenches occupied were often 
shallow and very full — full of Germans, some 
gibbering, some obsequious, some wounded and 
crying for food or water, some quite quiet ; full, 
too, of fighters, some hale, some dead, some 
wounded. The padre was all day in the front 
line giving religious consolation where he could ; 
and at night helping to bury the dead. Stretcher- 
bearers tried to push up, and when unable went 



12 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

into the open without fuss or hurry. Shells fell 
all the while — big shells and some mysterious 
shells smaller than the three-inch. Wounded men 
were taken into the small but deep dug-outs that 
the enemy had dug in this loamy soil. In some 
both doctors and padres found hiding Germans 
and sent them hustling off to the rear. 

" Through it all order reigned, though com- 
panies were mixed together ; and one bit of trench 
might be crammed while another was neglected. 
In spite of all this crumples were smoothed out. 
Officers with compasses and surveying tools 
quietly took bearings, and orderlies were sent back 
with precise messages. Our artillery battered a 
counter-attack and sent a German battalion 
scattering till it vanished like steam from an 
engine. Patrols went forward. Good digging was 
done. Water and food were brought up, and 
here and there astonishing supplies of soda-water, 
bread, and coffee beans collected in German 
dug-outs. 

" Numerous prisoners were collected in the 
rear and safely despatched. The difficult position 
was made firm, a great victory registered." 

And thus it was that Henry Bentinck received 
his death. 

He was second-in-command, and, from what he 
said later in hospital, he felt, when the order was 
given on the previous night to attack at — a.m., 
that his hour had come. 

He was wounded twice, the second breaking 
his thigh just above the knee. 

The following letter he dictated to his sister 
from the hospital in Rouen, where he died on 
2nd October 1916. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 13 

Curiously enough, my son Henry was born on 
the same day three years afterwards. 

"No. 2 Red Cross Hospital, 
A.P.O. 7., B.E.F., 

14/9/16. 

" My dear Colonel, — I can only say that I am 
very sorry indeed this has occurred. I hope it 
may not be of too long duration. 

" Soon after the attack commenced I was hit 
in the head by shrapnel — slight — ^and on going 
about two or three hundred yards farther I was 
hit through the right thigh with, I believe, a bullet. 
Two stretcher-bearers helped me back, and I reached 
Rouen on Sunday. They had the leg off that night. 

" They have been so optimistic with their 
accounts of fancy legs after my first gloomy 
thoughts of riding and soldiering that I still hope 
I may be able to retain the Coldstream uniform " 
(his darling regiment, as he often refers to it in 
the Letters). " I heard you were fit, and hope that 
is correct. Everything else here is disjointed. I 
shall be glad to hear, if only a line, from you. I 
wish I hadn't left you. — ^Yours ever, 

"Druce."^ 

(His name in the regiment, on account of the 
Portland-Druce case which was going on when 
he joined the Coldstreams.) 

" P.S. — I feel so ashamed at everything — I 
couldn't walk after I was hit in the leg." 

The following note was found in his Bible 
after his death, addressed to his sister. 



C( 



I could write much, but I haven't time. I 
am very happy, and wouldn't miss being in the 
3rd Battalion in line for anything. I have no 
idea what is going to happen to me, but ' I know 

* From Letters of Major Henry Bentinck. 



14 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

Whom I have beheved,' and I am quite safe in 
His hands. Love to M. and alL" 



So one is content, for no finer end could be 
desired for a Christian and a soldier. 

The fourth son, Arthur, after being wounded 
in East Africa in January 1914 whilst serving in 
the 3rd King's African Rifles, was again severely 
wounded in September 1914 at the Battle of the 
Aisne, having gone out with the Coldstreams at 
the beginning of the War immediately on his 
return from Africa, whence he had come to recoup 
his health. He is still with his regiment. Two of 
Count Godard's nephews, the sons of his brother 
William, were in the German Army ; his own eldest 
son belongs to the Dutch Diplomatic Service ; and 
yet another was in the German Navy, which he 
was forced to leave at the Revolution, which 
started at Kiel on 6th November. The fourth son 
is in the Dutch Army. 

I have tried to show how mixed and inter- 
national the Bentincks are, but it was curious that 
the request of the Dutch to harbour the German 
Emperor should have been made to a man whose 
father and grandfather had both been generals in 
the English Army, and whose mother, on the other 
hand, was a Waldeck-Pyrmont ! Strange that 
both guest and host should have been half English. 

One of the important moments of which we 
spoke just now had arrived, and this man had 
quickly to make a great decision. 

Count Godard discussed the news with his son, 
Count Carlos, and his daughter, Countess Elizabeth. 
One thing in his mind, as the S.O.S. call on behalf 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 15 

of the fallen monarch was considered, was that he 
was an hereditary knight of the Johanniter Orden, 
a Prussian branch of the Knights of St. John of 
Jerusalem, of which the Emperor was head, and of 
which one of the vows made by members was to 
help any brother Knight in adversity and distress. 
This obligation seemed to him to make his position 
very difficult. He did not know the Kaiser per- 
sonally, as he had been ill when that monarch 
visited his elder brother. Count Bentinck, at 
Middachten, in 1909 ; and later he heard that 
when told it had been arranged for him to go to 
Amerongen the fugitive had asked, " Who is this 
Bentinck ? I don't think I know him." 

Three hours after the first call another message 
came through from The Hague. This time he was 
most earnestly requested to give the Kaiser 
sanctuary, " for three days only." The Office 
had not been able to make any other arrangement. 
Count Godard pointed out that he had no coal, no 
petrol, and not enough servants. (Coal, petrol, 
and food supplies were very real difficulties in 
Holland during the last years of the War.) He was 
promised the dispatch of a truck-load of coal that 
evening, and that as much petrol as he wanted would 
be supplied. He said then that he would do his 
best, and while quite realising the odium he would 
draw upon himself from many sources, he decided 
to give the Kaiser " sanctuary "^ — " sanctuary," a 
relic of Christian, if more frankly barbaric, days. 

Every one set to work to prepare the Castle 
for the temporary guests. Count Godard had 
during the last two weeks arranged to take in 
a large number of Belgian refugees, and had made 



16 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

most elaborate arrangements for them in his large 
and airy coachhouses. This, as it turned out, 
was lucky, as it gave him a good many extra beds, 
with bedding, to draw upon if necessary. Among 
other servants another chef was sent for at once. 

The 11th of November broke drab and dismal 
over Amerongen. Soon after luncheon Count 
Godard drove off alone to fetch his guest from 
Maarn, a small and seldom-used wayside station 
about seven miles away, and near the town of 
Rhenen — ^the church steeple of which town inspired 
Rembrandt to some of his greatest etchings. 

The days immediately preceding this date had 
been chaotic, and no one knew from one moment 
to the next exactly what would happen. On 6th 
November 1918 the German delegates reached the 
allied line. At 9.15 p.m. on the 7th they were 
directed to a spot near La Capelle. Here the 
blazing searchlights fell upon the road. The firing 
ceased and the delegates passed through. At 9 a.m. 
on the 8th they arrived at Rdthondes, where Foch's 
Headquarters lay in a train on the Compidgne- 
Soissons railway. Herr Erzberger, the Catholic 
deputy, at once asked for an immediate armistice. 
Foch refused, and then read out slowly the terms 
on which one would be granted. The Germans 
asked for seventy-two hours, as they couldn't 
accept the terms on their own responsibility. 

The terms were sent by courier to the German 
Headquarters at Spa, where they arrived at 10 a.m. 
on 10th November. When these terms were being 
considered. Marshal Hindenburg telegraphed to 
Berlin an urgent request to accept all terms without 
delay, as he could not undertake to hold the armies 










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THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 17 

together any longer. At this time the German armies 
had only seventeen divisions in reserve, and Sir 
Douglas Haig described the enemy as being " capable 
neither of accepting nor of refusing battle." 

When in the Reichstag Herr Fehrenbach read 
Hindenburg's telegram, Herr Ebert put the 
question, " Who opposes this step ? " Whereupon 
" followed that fearful silence. I hope I shall never 
again experience so terrible a silence." ^ 

When the Armistice terms arrived at Spa the 
Emperor had gone 1 All through the night of 9th 
November he was travelling in a motor steadily 
towards Holland. He arrived at Eysden, the Dutch- 
Belgian frontier, at 8 a.m. on the 10th, and seeing 
a soldier loitering about he walked up to him, 
saying, " I am the German Emperor," at the 
same time handing the amazed fellow his sword ! 
Tableau 1 For the moment no one knew what to do. 
But mercifully for him in a few hours his special 
train arrived, and in it he sought refuge for the 
remainder of the day and the following night, during 
which time plans were being made as rapidly as 
possible for his future. 

While the Emperor was in his train at Eysden 
during the cold, dark morning hours of the 11th 
November ^ momentous doings were taking place 
at Foch's Headquarters. 

At 5 a.m. on that day the Armistice terms were 
signed, the signatories being F. Foch, Erzberger, 
A. Oberndorft, Winterfeldt, von Salow, and R. E. 
Wemyss. It may be of interest to note here that 
the only English signature attached to this historic 

^ Reuter from the Rhenische Westfaelische Zeitung. 
» 1918. 

3 



18 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

document is that of a Scotsman and incidentally 
a relation of mine ! 

Sir Rosslyn Wemyss' grandmother was Lady 
Emma Hay, sister to the 18th Earl of Errol, K.T., 
who was my great-grandfather. In this connection 
may I be allowed to relate a little family history 
which bears somewhat upon the subject in hand 
and helps to weave my narrative together ? 

It is a matter of history that King William iv. 
had nine children by Dorothy Jordan the famous 
actress of the end of the eighteenth century. 

Though not beautiful, her success was extra- 
ordinary, and according to Boaden the secret of 
her unique charm lay in her swindling laugh. 

Hazlitt said of her, " Mrs. Jordan's laugh comes 
over the heart, and if it has grown dry and seared 
it fills it with remembrance of joy and gladness 
once more " ; and Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose 
favourite actress she was, declared that she laughed 
from " sheer wildness of delight." 

Of herself, she said : "I heard the audience 
laugh at me, and I laughed myself : they laughed 
again, and so did I.'* 

Few actresses can have been admired by so 
varied a band as the following : Byron, Leigh 
Hunt, Hazlitt, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Romney, 
Haydon, Crabb Robinson (who described her and 
Mile. Mars as the types of woman's fascination), 
John Kemble, Lord North, and the Prince Regent. 
How ironical that this woman who made herself 
loved and immortal by her seductive and irresistible 
laugh should have died forsaken in Paris in such 
great misery that she could not even shed a tear ! ^ 

* See Mrs.JordaUt by Philip W. Sergeant. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 19 

Let me quote from Leigh Hunt's clever and 
sympathetic pen picture of her, and then in a 
second we can visualise her. 

" There was one comic actress who was Nature 
herself in one of her most genial forms. This was 
Mrs. Jordan, who, though not beautiful nor 
handsome nor even pretty nor accomplished, nor 
' a lady ' nor anything conventional or comme il 
faut whatsoever, yet was so pleasant, so cordial, so 
natural, so full of spirits, so healthily constituted 
in mind and body, had such a shapely leg withal, 
so sweet, mellow, charming and loving a voice 
and such a happy and happy-making expression 
of countenance that she appeared something 
superior to all those requirements of acceptability, 
and to hold a patent from Nature herself for our 
delight and good opinion. . . . She made even 
Methodists love her. . . . The very sound of the 
little familiar word bud (her abbreviation for 
husband) from her lips as she packed it closer as it 
were in the utterance and pouted it up with fondness 
in the man's face, taking him at the same time by 
the chin, was a whole concentrated world of the 
power of loving." 

In 1831 the King was pleased to grant the title 
and precedence of the younger children of a 
Marquis to his family by this lady. His eldest 
son was elevated to the peerage as Earl of Munster 
by letters patent, with special remainder in default 
of his own male issue to his brothers, the Lords 
Frederick, Adolphus, and Augustus Fitzclarence. 

Their sister, Elizabeth, married the 18th Earl 
of Errol (who incidentally is the first subject 
in Scotland after the Blood Royal), and they had 



20 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

one son and three daughters, the eldest of whom 
married my grandfather, Lord Gainsborough ; the 
second daughter married the 5th Earl of Fife 
(her granddaughter becoming Princess Arthur of 
Connaught); the third daughter married Count 
Stuart d'Albanie. 

The following is a letter from my grandmother 
(Lady Ida Hay), at that date Viscountess Campden, 
to my grandfather : 

" Chateait de Sayn, Coblbntz, 
August I, 1864. 

" My dearest Lord, — ^You will be surprised at 
the date of this letter. I came here on Saturday 
to meet the Queen of Prussia,^ and this afternoon 
I return again to Ems with Blanche.^ This place 
is charming, not large but beautifully situated, 
perfectly arranged, and finished with the utmost 
taste. There are some fine modern pictures and 
a great deal of beautiful oak carving. 

" The party staying in the house are Count 
Pahlen (whom you know), the Due de Rohan 
(whom you remember in Paris), and the Due de 
Cajianello. Prince Wittgenstein is growing older 
and his hair very white ; he is a charming host. 
She is as charming as ever and still very handsome, 
though her beauty has waned a good deal. She 
asked much after you. 

" Yesterday the Queen arrived at five o'clock 
in the afternoon from Coblentz. She was accom- 
panied by the Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, 
the father of the late Queen of Portugal and 
brother-in-law of the Duchess of Hamilton, and 
attended by two ladies-in-waiting and one gentle- 

* Wife of King William i., first German Emperor, and grand- 
mother of the ex- Kaiser. 

? Lady Blanche Noel, my aunt. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 21 

man, Count Waldeck. I went in to dinner with 
Count Waldeck, and sat on the left of Prince 
HohenzoUern. After dinner the Queen talked to 
me a great deal. She spoke of my mother * and 
of Lord Frederick, Lord Adolphus, and Lady- 
Mary,^ all of whom she had known ; also of the 
Duchess of Saxe- Weimar, who was her aunt by 
marriage. She remarked that I had the name of 
Ida from the Duchess of Saxe- Weimar. . . . She 
is still wonderfully handsome and a splendid figure, 
and has the most perfect manners I ever saw — 
gracious, dignified, fascinating, and gentle all at 
once. Full of conversation, brilliantly clever, 
quite a Royal lady in beauty, intellect, and in 
deportment, Blanche looked charming, and her 
shiny golden hair is specially admired. Count 
Waldeck is enraptured with her, and told me she 
was * une veritable figure de keepsake,' like ' a 
lovely little vignette,' and her proficiency in 
German enchanted them all. . . . 

" The weather here is dreadfully hot. 

" God bless you always. — ^Your devoted wife, 

" Ida Campden." 

It struck me as a curious coincidence that in 
this letter of my grandmother's the grandmother 
of the ex-Emperor should figure so conspicuously, 
and also that special mention should have been 
made of Count Waldeck. 

On looking him up in the Almanack de Gotha 
of 1862 I see him described as Count Adalbert 
William Charles, and that he married in 1858 (six 
years before the date of the letter) Princess Caroline 
of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein. So I gather 
that he was the brother-in-law of my grandmother's 

1 Lady Elizabeth Fitzclarence. 

2 Lady Mary Fitzclarence married General Charles Richard Fox. 



22 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

host. His sister, Countess Caroline of Waldeck- 
Pyrmont, married my husband's grandfather and 
became the mother of Count Godard Bentincls, 
the ex-Kaiser's host. 

And now, after having looked back into the 
past for over half a century, we will return to 
William ii. sitting a fugitive in his train at Eysden. 

The Royal train was due to arrive at Maarn 
at about 3 p.m. on the llth.^ Count Lynden 
was first of all approached and asked to give the 
Emperor hospitality for a few days, but he had 
found it impossible to comply with the request. 
Count Godard Bentinck's name was then mentioned, 
as we have seen, and " on the second time of 
asking " he complied. 

Rumour had conquered secrecy, and a goodly 
number of people, peasants and others, had 
gathered in the station yard to witness the arrival. 
Nobody was allowed on the platform excepting 
Count Lynden, who is the Governor of the province 
of Utrecht, Count Godard Bentinck, and the 
station officials. The rain poured steadily down, 
and the two men walked up and down the swimming 
platform, while the stolid, expressionless faces 
peered at them through the dripping iron railings 
Then a soft puffing was heard, and rather slowly 
the Imperial train steamed into the station. 

Immediately it pulled up the ex-Kaiser in 
uniform and carrying a cane stepped briskly to 
the platform and came straight up to the Governor 
and Count Godard, shook hands with both, and 
exchanged a few words of greeting, of which one 
sentence was, according to the Times correspondent, 

1 November 191 8. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 23 

" Denn was sagen Sie dazu ? " Then Count 
Godard led the way to his closed car, and almost 
before the silent crowd had realised that the Kaiser 
had come and gone the little party was speeding 
towards Amerongen. Behind them a great bustle 
began, as the suite descended from the train to 
unpack their master's and their own belongings. 
Large quantities of food and wine had been 
brought. 

During the drive through the rain to Amerongen 
the Kaiser spoke very little. A few, a very few, 
conventional remarks were all that passed. No 
doubt he was still stunned by the sudden cata- 
strophe to his House, fatigued by the journey, 
and anxious to reach a haven. 

At last, in the failing light, the car drew up 
at the Castle. And as he crossed the bridge over 
the inner moat to the main door, relief, obvious 
and deep, at the successful end of his journey 
from the bewildering transformation scene at Spa 
to the restful quietude of Amerongen, found 
expression — in a way that would have sounded 
very unlikely to British ears. 

" Now," he said to Count Godard, rubbing his 
hands together, " give me a cup of real good 
English tea ! " Count Godard smilingly assured 
him he would get it. 

Within the hall Count Godard's eldest son and 
only daughter. Count Carlos and Countess Eliza- 
beth, and his elder brother. Count Charles Bentinck, 
with his daughter. Countess Marie Bentinck, were 
gathered to meet the Kaiser. Brief introduc- 
tions and greetings over, he was taken up to the 
suite of rooms made ready for him. 



24 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

The " real good tea," but Scottish rather than 
EngHsh, came quickly. There is among the 
treasures at Amerongen a Scottish housekeeper, 
an adept in the preparation of the substantial and 
appetising scones, pancakes, shortbread, and so 
on, that every one who crosses the Border enjoys 
at " high tea " at some time or other. Since that 
introduction to them the ex-Kaiser has delighted 
in them. 

That evening about forty people sat down to 
dinner at Amerongen. The table was profusely 
decorated with flowers from the Castle gardens, 
and the guests ate off silver plates, dated about 
1700, and bearing the arms of the Aldenburg 
family, which is in reality the same as that called 
Oldenburg to-day, into which one of the ex- 
Kaiser's sons married. The interior of the Castle 
was scarcely recognisable ; for the household was 
one of the quietest in the country. Count Godard 
taking no part in political life and little in ordinary 
society functions. 

During the preceding hours the Castle and 
outbuildings were in a whirl with the arrival of 
the suite and baggages and stores. Rooms were 
provided for as many as possible of the suite, 
and accommodation was found in the village near 
by for the remainder ; quantities of the stores 
were packed in the stables. 

Perhaps it was fortunate for the fugitive that 
there was this unavoidable bustle and excitement. 
It gave a certain amount of animation to a meal 
which, if only a few had been there, could hardly 
have escaped an atmosphere of gloom. As it was, 
nobody had quite got his bearings. The usual 




EX-KAISER'S "SANCTUARY," AMERONGEN 
Showing- outside moat 




AMERONGEN 

Showing double bridges — the only possible access to the house^ — 

thus making it a peculiarly safe retreat. 

See page 23 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 25 

i 

deference, of course, was paid to the chief guest 
by all the suite ; but a certain abstractedness was 
occasionally apparent. 

The Kaiser himself did his best to keep things 
going, and talked a good deal and with much 
animation. No word of bitterness or reproach 
was heard from him, and this fact particularly 
struck Count Godard. " Never," he told me, 
" from that day to this has a bitter word of any 
one, German or English, fallen from his lips, with 
the sole exception of Prince Max of Baden, of 
whom he remarked, ' Max von Baden ist hinter mir 
gegangen ' (Max of Baden has tricked me behind 
my back)." This was an allusion to the fact that 
Prince Max, who was Imperial Chancellor at the 
time, had issued a decree on 9th November that 
the Kaiser had abdicated — ^though, as a matter 
of fact, he did not do so till 28th Noyember. 
It was this, with British propaganda, that he 
believed helped to make his position in Germany 
impossible ; the people, naturally accepting what 
their newspapers told them, believed that the 
Emperor had forsaken them, and this aroused 
bitter feeling. 

From his rooms the Kaiser could see over the 
treetops the masts of ships passing slowly up and 
down the Rhine, for this river runs only about a 
mile from the house. 

Amerongen is withdrawn some distance from 
the main road between the towns of Arnhem and 
Utrecht, in a backwater of the country, as it were. 
This, of course, made it peculiarly suitable as an 
unofficial prison-retreat. The Castle, a brick 
building of four storeys, which replaced the original 
4 



26 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

Castle destroyed by fire nearly two and a half 
centuries ago, has large, lofty, well-proportioned 
rooms, marked by a solid comfort and dignified 
by many art treasures. It is surrounded by two 
moats, one round the walls, the other at a distance 
of a hundred yards. From the windows of their 
quarters the servants could fish in the moat. 

For the Royal couple (the ex-Kaiserin was 
expected soon) a suite of four rooms had been 
prepared at the back of the Castle. They are all 
large and high-ceilinged ; and the walls are 
covered with painted canvas, on which are little 
vignettes with flowered borders. The furniture 
is chiefly Dutch, but with a great deal of French 
(Louis Quinze chiefly) and English, and there 
are many Chinese pieces ; all is arranged with 
an admirable taste that gives to the beautifully 
proportioned chambers an appearance of dignified 
calm. 

In one, a narrow four-poster bed, its slender 
posts hung with beautiful blue-grey silk brocade, 
catches the eye. It has given rest to two of the 
most talked-of monarchs in history ; for it was 
that used by Louis xiv. in tliree out of the six 
weeks, beginning in May 1672, in which, with the 
great Conde and Turenne, he conquered half the 
Netherlands. That was in the earlier days of 
his splendour, and, no doubt — ^taking into account 
the official bedroom receptions of those days — it 
figured in many a gay and glittering gathering, 
as well as grave and urgent council. If furniture 
could speak — ^but we will allow each one who 
looks upon it to make his own reflections on this 
link between the two " L'^tat, c'est moi " rulers, 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 27 

one in the heyday of his fame, the other in the 
most mortifying moment of his decHne, 

I began this chapter by mentioning the curious 
unrecognised forewarning Count Godard received 
on 10th November. I will end by recalling a 
strange little omen, linking the Kaiser with the 
Bentinck family. Wilhelm ii., on 9th August 
1909, had visited Count Bentinck (Count Godard's 
eldest brother) at his castle at Middachten. The 
Kaiser arrived at about five o'clock, and his train 
remained in the little station at Steeg, which was 
gaily decorated with Dutch and German flags. 
The day was a hot and stifling one, and a violent 
storm suddenly burst. Strange to say, the only 
flag which was torn from its post and flung 
violently to the ground was the German one. 

The incident was discreetly commented on at 
the time, but since the Revolution and the coming 
together again under such strange circumstances 
of a Hohenzollern and a Bentinck it has struck 
people more forcibly, for the omen seemed indeed 
to have been symbolic of what the future held. 



CHAPTER II 

" Do you deserve to be regarded as a blameless person, stalwart 
for the right in words and in deeds ? " — Juvenal. 

" Three days " had been the period suggested, 
off-hand and very hurriedly, for the ex-Kaiser's 
stay at Amerongen ; but it was almost at once 
recognised that this provisional arrangement would 
have to be extended. 

The truth was that no one in high authority 
knew quite what to do with the fugitive; the 
outcome of the chaos in Germany, where minor 
thrones were collapsing and old institutions being 
uprooted daily, could not be foreseen, and the 
revolutionary ferment even in staid Holland was 
causing considerable disquietude ; and so no better 
solution of the embarrassment which the ex- 
Kaiser's arrival had thrust upon the Dutch could 
be found than that he should remain as quietly as 
possible in the isolated and peaceful residence of 
Count Godard Bentinck until the situation cleared. 

Whether or not the fugitive himself suggested 
the probable number of days of his stay I do not 
know; but one may draw one's own deductions 
from the fact that some time later he remarked 
musingly to his host, " How strange it is ! I 
have until now never stayed in any man's house 
for more than three days, and with you I have been 
for months ! " 




(By the courtesy of the Proprietors, of The Daily Mail.) 



FRAU VON ILSEMANN 
(geb: Gravin Bentinck). 



HAUPTMANN VON ILSEMANN 
Adjutant to the ex-Kaiser. 



ON THEIR WEDDING DAY. OCTOBER 7th, 1920. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 29 

I have used the word " peaceful " in describing 
Amerongen, but that adjective has ceased to 
apply to the quiet old Dutch house since 11th 
November 1918. Of course that month was a 
more than usually unpeaceful time. Within the 
grounds the suite brought day-long bustle ; without, 
in the village, every available room was filled, and 
the innkeeper did a splendid trade. Motor-cars 
dashed backwards and forwards, aeroplanes whirled 
overhead, Press representatives from all parts of 
the world flocked to the gates — but no farther than 
the gates. Only the central figure was hidden. 
No better protected retreat for him than the tree- 
surrounded Castle within its double moat could 
have been found in Holland. 

A strong military guard had been posted at 
Amerongen before the fugitive's arrival, and from 
that time no one was allowed to pass unless 
furnished with p special " permit." 

At the outer entrance, where the walls meet 
the gates, there is a large brick-floored orangery, 
and this was used as a guard-room. Here an 
authorised visitor was given a white card with his 
or her name written in full on it (no card being 
given unless the name had been " passed " by 
Count Godard). Passing up the avenue and over 
the outer moat, the visitor yielded the white card 
at the inner gate to the officer in charge of the 
second detachment of soldiers, and received a blue 
one in exchange. This was the last formality 
before entering the Castle. On returning, the 
visitor gave up the blue card, and was then free 
to leave the grounds. 

All relatives and friends of the family had to 



80 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

go through this formality every time they visited 
Amerongen. This was only a check on visitors 
from outside though, the members of the household 
and the entourage being too well known to require 
such a " pass." 

Both the gates were securely fastened every 
evening, and during the dark hours Amerongen 
held its fugitive safely away from the outside 
world. His safety was made doubly sure by the 
fact that, when frosts came, the ice round the inner 
moat (where no skating was allowed) was broken 
regularly every night. 

Now that the ex-Kaiser has left there are, of 
course, no more guards, and so there is nothing to 
stop the inquisitive motorist turning off the high 
road and darting over the moat past the house and 
out again, in order to see the now famous refuge 
of William ii. Such an occurrence happened 
when I was there, and is a cause of considerable 
annoyance to the family and their guests. 

At Amerongen the post of Burgomaster was 
held by a friend of the Bentinck family (parishes 
are much larger in Holland than in England, and 
the post, which corresponds roughly to that of a 
mayor or chairman of a county council, is some- 
times held by county gentlemen), and he naturally 
had much to do with arrangements without the 
gates ; but everything relating to the guarding of 
the ex-Kaiser was in the hands of the Governor 
of the province of Utrecht. 

Many mysterious visitors sought an entrance, 
and once — but that was at a later period than 
that which I am now describing — a man drove 
through the gates in a shabby old hired brougham. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 31 

although he apparently had no " pass." The 
bewilderment and annoyance were great, and how 
he had managed to enter remained a puzzle. 

Though the merely curious were kept back at 
the gates, contact with the outer world was 
constant and feverish in these early days. Prince 
Max of Baden had on 9th November announced 
that the Kaiser had abdicated, but the exile himself 
had made no formal renunciation of his rights. 
How and when, if at all, that formality was to be 
accomplished was the question which agitated 
him in his interviews and ponderings within the 
walls — for he was little seen out of doors. No rest 
could come to him, for the drama was not yet 
finished ; the last curtain had not been rung down, 
and this could only be accomplished by a supreme 
action on the part of the chief actor. 

Whatever the reports from Berlin, set in 
motion by Prince Max of Baden, had been he was 
still German Emperor, and it behoved him with his 
own hand to put himself down from the pinnacle 
on which (apart from his birth) his masterful 
personality had placed him. 

On his arrival from Spa he had brought a 
large " suite " with him, consisting of the following 
gentlemen, according to the Times, 13th November 
1918 : Colonel-General von Plessen, Lieutenant- 
General von Gontard, Hofmarshal von Platen, 
Major-General von Frankenberg, Major-General 
von Litorff, Major-General von Grimman, Colonel 
Count von Moltke, Surgeon- General von Niester, 
Major-General von Hirschfeld, Captain von Ilse- 
mann. Captain Seiss, Captain Knauff, Captain 
Schaderberg, and Captain Grutsche. 



82 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

At first he naturally did not discuss with his 
host at any length the great political events of 
the day affecting him, and since that time he has 
been sparing in comment on the actual circum- 
stances attending his abdication. But it was 
understood that one of the principal determining 
motives for the formal act of abdication was 
(apart from the fact that he had already been de- 
throned) that it had been declared from the allied 
side that there would be " no peace with a Hohen- 
zollern," and that therefore a possibility of his 
later return to Germany might delay a peace settle- 
ment. There was, also, the fact that his acceptance 
of the status of a private citizen would ease the 
difficulties of those who gave him temporary shelter. 
How far he should compromise the rights of his 
successors was another problem. 

Parleyings were continued to the end of the 
month before the form of the official act of abdica- 
tion was definitely fixed. 

The 28th of November ^ arrived, and, prelimin- 
aries over, several black-coated men were led silently 
up the staircase and through the gallery — where 
from the walls dead makers of history clad in robes 
grandiose and picturesque looked down on these 
living history- makers garbed so unheroically — ^to 
the Kaiser's apartments. 

In one of these pictures Count Godard Bentinck 
is represented in the robes of a Knight-Commander 
of the Teutonic Order. The uniform is very 
effective, having a tunic of white cloth with black 
V-shaped collar and cuffs, high military boots 
somewhat similar to those worn by the Life Guards, 

* 1918. 



loh verzlchte hlerdurch fur alle Zukunft aaf die: Reohte 
sa Ser Kroae Freassea and die 450111 verbandenea Beobte en der 
deatsobSQ Ealserkrone. 

Zaglelch eutbinde Ich alle BeamteQ des Deatschen Reichs 
and Freussens sovle alle Offlzlere, Dnterofflziere and Mann- 
BOhafteti der Marine, des Freasslsohes Seeres and der Trappeti 
der Bande.skontingente des .Treaeides, das ele Uir als Ihrea 
Kaiser, Eonlg and Oberstea Befehlshaber gelelstet haben. Icli 
erwarte von ihnen, dass sle bis zar Neaordnang des Deat.schea 
Reichs den Inhabern der tatsachlichea Qewalt in Deatschland 
helfen, das Deutsche Volk gegen die drohendea Qefahren der 
Anarchie, der Hungersnot and der Fremdherrschaft za schiitzen. 

Urkundlich anter Unserer Hochsteigenhandigea Unter- 
BObrlft end belgedruckten Kaiserllchen Insiegel.' 

Gegeben Amerongen, dea 28. November 1918. 










P^AC-SIMILE OF THE ABDICATION SIGNED BY 
THE EX-KAISER AT AMERONGEN 



(By the courtesy of the Proprietors oj The Daily Mail.) 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 33 

with golden spurs, the true sign of knighthood. 
Black cloth knee-breeches are worn, and from 
the shoulders hangs a graceful white cloak. The 
whole is surmounted by a black hat with a white 
plume, and round the neck is worn a massive chain 
of silver. 

I mentioned in the last chapter that four rooms 
had been reserved for the Royal eouple. These 
led off the central gallery. As you enter the room 
in which the abdication was signed two windows 
face you. In the recess of one stands a fine Buhl 
writing-table, also faintly reminiscent of Louis 
Quartorze, the victorious occupant of Amerongen, 
for the type of furniture derives its name from 
Charles Andre Boule, a cabinet-maker in the 
service of the Grand Monarque. Any one seated 
here looks out across the moats to pleasant fields, 
and then, farther away, to ships on the Rhine. 
Here it was, within view of the river that runs 
through all German history, that the Kaiser 
definitely became ex-Kaiser by signing the simple 
typewritten sheet of which I give a reproduction 
on the next page, and of which the following is a 
translation : 

" I hereby for all the future renounce my rights 
to the Crown of Prussia and my consequential 
rights to the German Imperial Crown. 

" At the same time I release all officials of the 
German Empire and Prussia, as well as all the 
officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of the 
Navy, of the Prussian Army, and of the federal 
contingents, from the oath of fealty, which they 
have made to me as their Emperor, King and 
Supreme Commander. I expect of them that until 
5 



34 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

the reorganisation of the German Empire they 
will help those in possession of actual power in 
Germany to protect the German people against 
the threatening dangers of anarchy, famine, and 
foreign domination. 

" Given under our hand and our Imperial seal, 

" WiLHELM. 

"Amerongen, November 28, 1918." 

The signature, which he had copied from his 
grandfather, so beloved of the German people, 
was as bold, the flourishes as flowery, as ever. 
Apropos his signature I may say how very 
unwilling he is to give it away ; the most people 
may usually expect is a piece of wood sawn by his 
hand, on which he inscribes a bold "W." The 
ceremony, if it could so be called, was brief. The 
fateful document was handed to the emissaries, who 
with a total absence of the externals of place and 
dignity left as quickly as they had arrived, bearing 
with them to the New Germany the precious 
corner-stone for the edifice they hoped to erect on 
the ruins of Kaiserdom. 

After they had left, the ex-Kaiser came to his 
host and said, "Nothing should happen in your 
house of which you are ignorant, and I wish to 
tell you that at this moment I have signed my 
abdication." 

That was all, and naturally no comments on 
the poignant situation were made. From the 
ex-Kaiser's point of view this must have been a 
terrible day, the culmination of all the previous 
tragic happenings which had led up to it. He 
bore it, I was told, with fortitude and resignation. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 35 

One may wonder whether this abdication may 
prove worthless — " a scrap of paper." For he 
might argue that he signed it against his will, and, 
another point, that it was only for himself that he 
resigned. In view of the Berlin report, reproduced 
in the Times of 18th January 1921, that evidence 
has been obtained that the HohenzoUerns have 
joined in preparations for a new revolutionary 
coup, and that a number of former German officers 
living in Amsterdam are implicated, one's attention 
is focused on the wording of the document. 

That day, according to the Times, brought 
another important event for the exile — ^the ex- 
Kaiserin* arrived from Germany. For both the 
meeting was emotional. She looked worn and ill. 
They had last been together some time before the 
final crash, and that " catastrophe " — -for so it 
appeared to her, a thing terrible and inexplicable 
— ^had been infinitely more shattering to her than 
to him. 

She was taken at once to her rooms, and was 
attended by the Countess Keller, a very great 
friend, who came to her on her marriage and has 
been with her ever since. Here she remained for 
several days, and for some considerable time after 
her arrival she did not appear for meals. 

She was, as every one knows, more interested 
in the hidden domestic life than in the public 
political one. She believed the role of her husband 
was divinely ordained, and when the foundations 

^ Since this was written the death of the ex-Kaiserin occurred at 
Doom on nth April 192 1. The cofi&n was taken to Potsdam. The 
Royal train came to the station of Maarn to convey the mortal 
remains to Germany. 



36 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

of this her world were scattered she could only 
think it was because malign forces had triumphed. 
Thus her plight at least seemed pathetic to the 
onlookers at the meeting, and for a woman, 
distressed in mind and destitute of state, there 
was only human sympathy. 

She was in great fear for the safety of her 
husband. Then, and for long afterwards, she 
started in alarm at any unusual noise in the night. 
" They are coming for him," she would cry, and 
burst into tears. She had the fixed idea that 
Britain was to blame for the War, and that con- 
viction is still unshakable. 

I would speak with all respect of this Royal 
and noble lady, whose whole life, overshadowed 
publicly as it was by her brilliant husband, 
has been devoted privately to being a good wife 
and a good mother. In pre-war days few could 
equal and none excel her regal and gracious 
appearance. 

The suite of the ex-Kaiser began to dwindle 
rapidly. Formal abdication had taken away any 
excuse for keeping so many soldiers and officials 
around him, and, in any case, he would not have 
been allowed to retain them. He became more 
definitely " the exile." Finally, his establishment 
was reduced, apart from servants, to Lieutenant- 
General von Gontard (a man in the sixties), whose 
position was now analogous to that of a Chamber- 
lain, and Captain von Ilsemann, his aide-de-camp. 
When in July 1918 the German plan was to capture 
the whole of the Marne, and the railway connecting 
Paris and the Eastern Front was to be severed 
preparatory to cutting off the Eastern armies 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 37 

from those in the centre and the west, General 
von Gontard, with General Lindequist, was com- 
manding groups of divisions. 

At the wedding of Count Godard Bentinck's 
daughter to Captain von Ilsemann I had several 
opportunities for closely observing this man. His 
personal appearance is not striking, and his 
somewhat weak face, with its receding chin, 
would not, I imagine, inspire much confidence. 
His physiognomy is rather of the parrot type, and 
does not compare favourably with the fine, strong 
cast of countenance so often noticed in the German 
commanders. He is assiduous in his attentions 
to his master, and is very tenacious of the old 
regime, which consisted largely in flattery and 
hiding any unpleasant truths from the Emperor. 

Captain von Ilsemann, on the other hand, is 
the exact opposite, and represents an entirely 
different school. 

He has a good, strong, determined face, out of 
which two dark blue eyes look very straightly. 
He always says what he means and what he 
thinks, and this manner, although at first dis- 
concerting to one used to perpetual adulation, 
has come to be much appreciated by the ex- 
Kaiser. 

I will explain how he came to hold his present 
position, for he was unknown in Court circles 
before 1914, and his father was ennobled by this 
Emperor. 

Had Germany won there is no doubt he would 
have been given some very high position, and 
the ordre pour le merite would have been his. 
But the fates decreed otherwise, and instead of 



38 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

this distinguished order and a place in the Court 
of Berlin he won for himself a charming wife, whom 
he would never have met had it not been for the 
Revolution ! 

He distinguished himself in action against the 
Russians in East Prussia at the beginning of the 
War, and was in consequence appointed to the 
staff of Hindenburg. The veteran thought highly 
of his work, and in course of time made him the 
bearer of one of his dispatches to the Crown 
Prince. Here again the young soldier made a 
good impression. The Crown Prince thought he 
would make a useful counterpoise, in the retinue 
of his father, to the elderly soldiers, diplomatists, 
and politicians by whom he was surrounded, and 
sent him to Main Headquarters with a recom- 
mendation. 

In this way he became an aide-de-camp to 
the Kaiser. He is clever and energetic and of a 
gay disposition, and the Kaiser, finding his youth- 
ful cheerfulness a tonic, kept him in close attend- 
ance. He accompanied the Imperial couple to 
Constantinople ; and of this trip, by the way, he 
tells of his amusement at seeing the Kaiserin 
trying to stab with a hatpin unpleasant insects 
that were crawling on the walls of a palace in which 
they were lodged. 

When the list of his remaining " suite " was 
presented to the Kaiser to choose two gentlemen 
to remain with him the pencil was not put through 
the name of Sigurd von Ilsemann. It had been 
thought that perhaps he, young and energetic 
as he was, might wish to go back to Germany and 
there carve out a fresh career for himself. But 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 39 

the friendship which bound him to his dethroned 
master was too strong for this. So when it was 
suggested that the Emperor wished him to stay, 
he fell in with the plan. 

Since the abdication he has, in his capacity 
of private secretary, become more and more closely 
attached to his master. His greatest value perhaps 
is that the ex-Kaiser, who before his debdcle never 
knew whom to believe, now has the plain facts, 
whether pleasant or unpleasant, from this exceed- 
ingly frank and most agreeable young man. 

Christmas came before the ex-Kaiser had 
settled down to the freer share in the life of the 
household and the closer association with his host 
that in time became inevitable, and from which 
followed the conversations and incidents I shall 
describe. 

As is usual in Holland and in Germany, great 
preparations were made for the observance of the 
festival. One significant incident occurred at 
Amerongen. There, as here, carol singing is one 
of the features of the celebration. The village 
choir gave a little entertainment, at which one 
of the chief items was the well-known German 
hymn, " Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht." Hearing 
this, the ex-Kaiser spoke of his wish that the choir 
would sing to him at midnight on Christmas Eve ; 
but the authorities, whose great care was to avoid 
any step that might show a disposition to regard 
him as a guest rather than as a prisoner, prevented 
this arrangement being made. 

Within the Castle there were little encounters 
that caused amusement to all concerned. The 
maids were interested in the guest, and little 



40 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

attentions to his comfort brought them to his 
notice. Thus at Christmas and New Year he 
would greet them in the most unceremonious way 
while they were at their work, to wish them good 
luck and happiness, and to shake them by the 
hand. Being taken unawares on those occasions, 
they would quickly run their hands down their 
aprons to clean them before the handshake was 
given. And so the greetings took place with 
laughter. 

The feeling existing between the Castle and 
the village is quite feudal in its friendliness, and 
this atmosphere was much appreciated by the 
Emperor. The servants remain for years and 
years, and are related to the domestics of all the 
other Bentincks scattered over Holland. Thus 
they seem to form one large family and live to- 
gether on the happiest of terms. 

During these first months when his world was 
all so upside down the exile remained indoors a 
good deal except when he was sawing wood, and 
one of his chief pleasures at this time was to watch 
the members of the family and the villagers 
skating on the moat round the house. He would 
often spend a whole afternoon at the windows of 
his sitting-room looking on. One of the fre- 
quenters was a most graceful skater, and he was 
particularly keen not to miss her appearance, and 
sometimes sent a message asking her to come to 
sivaxe. 

Mention of this reminds me of a bright, cold 
day in February 1919, when the sun shone on the 
skaters. The ex-Kaiser's doctor — a short, stout, 
good-tempered-looking man, with a dark moustache 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 41 

and beard — came often to the Castle in the 
moj'nings in the early days, chiefly to see the 
ex^Kaiserin ; and on this occasion he remarked 
laughingly to me, " Real HohenzoUern weather ! " 
" That's what we always say when it's a fine day," 
he added. 



CHAPTER III 

" But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in by saucy 
doubts and fears." — Macbeth. 

To a man whose life had been extraordinarily 
varied and occupied even for one of his position ; 
who had delighted in the rapid succession in 
audience of notable men in all spheres in all 
countries and in the pomp and circumstance of 
Courts and the glitter and excitement of naval 
and military displays ; who in his constant travels 
had never missed an opportunity for a picturesque 
or dramatic pose — ^to him the daily round at 
Amerongen must have seemed extremely dull ; 
though, no doubt, to millions bereaved and im- 
poverished by the war his lot would appear 
enviable compared with theirs. 

Wherever he went he left some striking 
memory of his meteoric career. In visiting 
Damascus in February 1914 I was personally 
struck by this idiosyncrasy, which on this occasion 
took the form of extolling Christianity. 

We were visiting Saladin's tomb, on which 
reposed a huge bronze wreath of laurels which the 
Emperor had placed there. When he gave it 
there was a large cross in the wreath, but this 
had since been torn out by the Turks. A cross 
on Saladin's tomb certainly did seem incongruous, 
yet one could understand the feeling which lay 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 43 

behind the action, impetuous and perhaps mis- 
taken as it was. 

One is very sensitive to adverse opinions on 
one's religious behefs in the East, and I underwent 
this unpleasant experience when entering the 
church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.* In 
the porch of this church — which belongs equally 
to all sects and denominations of Christians — 
there is a wide stone seat which is the perquisite 
of certain Turkish families. 

Here, year in year out, sat or rather lounged 
young Turkish men who regarded the fervent 
stream of devout Christians excitedly approaching 
this extraordinary church with a sort of slightly 
veiled sarcastic commiseration, mingled with a 
haughty toleration. To the pilgrim on the thresh- 
old of Calvary this was not a pleasant sensation. 

But even so — ^to the uninitiated and unversed 
onlooker — ^the presence of the Turk in Jerusalem 
seemed to be the only possible solution to an 
exceedingly difficult question. Remembering all 
these varied journeys of William ii., his Vita 
Nuova behind a moat must have seemed indeed 
monotonous. Nevertheless, he did not follow any 
regular routine. He was, and is, too impulsive to 
have a settled plan for any day. As he had no 
affairs of State to deal with, and had, in fact, little 
else to do in the afternoons and evenings than to 
pass the time in the way most agreeable to him, 
he suited the occupation to the whim of the 
moment — so far as his confined conditions per- 
mitted. I say that to qualify my account, which 
follows, of an ordinary day at Amerongen. 

1 March 191 4. 



44 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

One habit has been invariable since he became 
an exile ; he rises extremely early, a habit, I am 
told, which many sovereigns keep. But he does 
not, I think, go to bed as early as the late 
Emperor of Austria, who was in Salzburg once 
when we were there. 

Our hotel was near the Schloss where he 
stayed, and one night on coming back in our 
droschke across the noisy cobblestones from a 
theatre our driver suddenly stopped and told 
us that he could take us no farther. " Der 
Kaiser schlaft," he said, with a whimsical smile. 
This feeling for Franz-Joseph was common to 
the peasants of Austria, and some of the tributes 
of love they paid him were fantastic. 

For instance pork, the most popular of meats 
in the Dual Empire, was always spoken of as 
Kaiser-Fleisch, and daily at midday when he was 
stopping at the Castle in Vienna crowds of people 
would turn into the courtyard on to which some 
of his private apartments looked, and would 
enthusiastically cheer the old man as he walked 
feebly to the windows and waved his hand to 
them in the most naive and fatherly fashion. 

But to return to William ii. The ex-Kaiser's 
first attendant in the morning, his valet, is a tall, 
good-looking man of about forty, who has been 
with him for many years. He is the only one 
around the exile to-day who wears his moustache 
in the old turned-up way, which, no doubt, will go 
down in historical portraiture as an outstanding 
characteristic of the pre-war Emperor. He has 
large, melancholy brown eyes, and his smile, when 
he politely returns a greeting, is a little wistful 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 45 

and sad. It was one of Montaigne's characters, 
I believe, who remarked that " no man is a hero 
to his valet," but I think that this valet must be 
the exception which proves the rule ! Like the 
other personal attendants he is very solicitous for 
his master's comforts. 

By eight o'clock the Emperor is generally out 
and takes a good walk. When he first arrived he 
used to go outside the Castle demesne, but this 
practice was soon discontinued, and so there only 
remained the walk between the moats and the 
garden, beyond which lies along the outside wall 
a distance of about 300 yards. He wore a blue 
serge suit and a Homburg hat, which sometimes 
had a black cock's-tail feather stuck in it. On 
cold days he wore a large cape made of " Loden," 
a dark green, closely woven stuff, very warm and 
waterproof, which is worn by all from Emperor 
to peasant throughout middle Europe. 

For some time after his arrival his supply of 
civilian suits was, for all practical purposes, non- 
existent. This was understandable, for uniform 
days were over, and it was only these, naturally, 
that had come with him from Spa. 

The people in the village have never borne 
him any ill-will or feeling of malice, and were 
quite glad to have him among them. He would 
often stop and talk to the men in the grounds 
and nod them a friendly " Good day." 

Prayers for the household were at 8.45, and 
he was always back in time for them. They took 
place in the picture gallery, with the host's 
daughter, who is very artistic, at the organ. He 
often chose the hymns. Sometimes, afterwards, 



46 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

he would laughingly reprove his host for the 
tattered state of the books. The little service 
was in Dutch, a language which he was soon able 
to speak fluently. 

After breakfast, which was taken to his rooms, 
his correspondence had to be tackled. It was very 
heavy, and came from all parts of the world ; some 
was abusive, but much also was sympathetic, for 
it must be remembered that he had a large party 
still attached to him in Germany. In these early 
days he had four gentlemen still with him, and 
their aid prevented him from being completely 
snowed under in the mornings. One of the four, 
who has since returned to Germany, was a very 
good musician, and whiled away many hours at the 
piano, lingering lovingly over Wagner, Beethoven, 
Chopin, and Liszt. He was composing an opera, 
and said that music was the real interest of his 
life and soldiering only a necessity. 

The rest of the morning would be spent in 
cutting and sawing wood. We have often heard 
that this was his favourite pastime at Amerongen, 
but I did not realise with what zest he applied 
himself to it or the great amount of work he got 
through till I saw his handiwork myself. In the 
whole of his stay he cut down several thousands 
of trees, covering a closely set half -acre of ground. 
It is true that they were chiefly small Scotch firs, 
with trunks about six inches in diameter ; but 
these were not only cut down but carefully sawn 
up in small pieces a.nd as carefully stacked by 
himself. 

When, during the last years of the War, coal 
was almost unobtainable in Holland, Count Godard 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 47 

Bentinck, to be ready for emergencies, installed 
at the Castle china stoves specially made for 
burning wood. All the wood now used in these 
stoves is that sawn up by the exile. The supply 
for a year ahead is kept at the back of the stables, 
and last October ^ I saw, ready for this winter, a 
solid mass of his blocks, occupying a space roughly 
about twelve feet in length and breadth and eight 
feet in height. The apertures of the stoves are 
narrow, and the wood has, in consequence, to be cut 
up in small, uniform pieces ; so it will be seen that 
the exile had to be workmanlike. 

In the grounds the Bentinck children had 
built a summer-house — one which did them infinite 
credit, for it was a most elaborate and comfort- 
able little place. Here were books, tables, com- 
fortable chairs, and a tiny cooking- stove, with all 
the requisites for a light meal. To this the wood- 
cutter would retire when he was tired, and port, 
cigarettes, and cigars would be brought to him. 
Maps would then be spread on the table, and here 
he would go over his battles again. With finger 
on map he would discuss with animation the 
scenes of victory or disaster of the last four years, 
and his many rapid journeys from front to front. 
On the opposite side of the path a lean-to had 
been erected for his convenience, with all the 
rest of the paraphernalia necessary to wood- 
cutting. 

Here, in his serge suit, coUarless, with his shirt 
slightly open at the neck, would the fallen monarch 
spend most of his time when not in the house — 
sawing, sawing, sawing ! 

* 1920. 



48 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

Sometimes one of his " suite " or a member 
of the family would be with him, but it was not 
unusual for him to spend many hours alone when 
thus occupied. 

What a change for the War-Lord of a year 
ago ! 

It is here that he cuts the wood into narrow 
strips which he uses to give as mementoes to 
attendants and, indeed, to friends as well. When 
he arrived from Belgium he had — ^as is usual 
with Royal persons — a goodly store of jewellery 
for use as gifts. What I saw consisted chiefly 
of aquamarine pendants on platinum chains, and 
others with the Imperial cipher in tiny diamonds 
prettily set on pale blue enamel. But these, of 
course, had to be kept for special occasions ; so 
the signed strips of wood were very useful when 
unimportant httle gifts were needed. And these 
will — in the future — ^be interesting in their small 
way as typifying in concrete form the favourite 
employment of the fallen monarch. 

At one o'clock came luncheon, sometimes in 
his own room, sometimes with the family. It was 
of an ordinary kind — ^an entree consisting of eggs, 
rissotto, etc., followed by game. Sometimes a 
salmon from the Rhine would be sent by friends 
of Count Godard Bentinck, and this was much 
appreciated, for sentimental as well as for culin- 
ary reasons. Dutch cooking is extremely good 
(though, on account of the quantity of cream and 
butter used, it is decidedly bad for the figure !), 
and, like all of us, the ex-Kaiser enjoys the efforts 
of a good chef. There are always two at Ameron- 
gen — a German and a Dutchman. Of wine he 




^ Photo. Central News.) 
THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 
The ex-Kaiserin hands the Kaiser a cablegram in the grounds of Amerongen 
General Dommes, the Adjutant to the Kaiser, is the other figure. 



l^ 






h— 1 n 

> o 




I— H "^ 



m 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 49 

drank sparingly, chiefly white ; but a good deal 
of champagne had come with him when he 
crossed the frontier. 

Afternoons, when fine, were spent out of doors ; 
but when it was wet or dull outside he would, 
with one of his attendants, walk round and round 
the gallery for over an hour, solely with the idea 
of taking exercise. 

On fine days he would go for long drives 
through the Amerongen woods, which are large 
and wild, and in which one can roam for hours 
without meeting another human being. From 
them, on particularly clear days, one can see 
nearly into Germany. Occasionally, but not very 
frequently, he would motor along the roads in 
the neighbourhood. His radius was a very re- 
stricted one. Seven miles in the direction of 
Doom (his present home) was the outside limit 
of these excursions, and he was thus never near a 
large town, Utrecht being fourteen miles beyond 
Doom, and Arnhem about fifteen miles from 
Amerongen in the other direction. 

He has several big cars, all Mercedes, and he 
invariably travels at a high rate of speed — ^he is 
gone almost before one realises that he is there. 
A favourite car has a light-coloured wooden body, 
and looks as though it had been built for use on 
shooting expeditions. When I was there I noticed 
that his car moves off with great dash and gains 
speed very quickly. His chauffeur is now old 
in his service, and — ^like all his servants — is as 
respectfully ceremonious as in the old days when 
Jove's whisper made millions incline. The foot- 
man always hands him his military overcoat — 
7 



50 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

the only military thing he uses now — with a bow, 
and carefully buttons it for him from high under 
the chin downwards. 

I saw him depart once from Amerongen after 
a visit, and was much struck by the scene. The 
car was in the background ; servants were 
obsequiously bowing and keeping at a proper 
distance ; Count Godard and several other gentle- 
men, among them one of his sons who was at the 
time staying at Doom, were all hovering about 
him. Before he put on his coat he looked a mixture 
of King Edward vii. and Prince Henry of Prussia, 
but with the coat on he and the scene were trans- 
formed, and I could visualise him, as I had often 
seen him in pictures, surrounded by officers of the 
higher command, feet planted well apart, stern, 
eager face looking up, finger pointing forward. 

One of the places to which he motored most 
frequently was Zuylestein, the home of Count 
Charles Bentinck, elder and only surviving brother 
of Count Godard, and situated near Leersum, 
a mile from Amerongen, in the direction of Doom. 
The house, which dates from the twelfth century, 
is smaller than Amerongen, but very charming. 
A tower, surmounted by a curiously shaped, slate- 
covered ball, rears itself above the main building 
and leans quite noticeably to the west. It be- 
longed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries 
to the family of the Nassau-Zuylestein. They 
married with the de Reede Ginkells, their neigh- 
bours at Amerongen, and they again entered into 
matrimonial bonds with the Bentincks, thus 
bringing the two properties (through women) to 
their present owner. Count Godard. At pne time 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 51 

the novelist Maarten Maartens, well known a 
decade ago to English readers, rented Zuylestein, 
and, I believe, portrayed some members of the 
Bentinck family in one of his books. 

The ex-Kaiser doesn't shoot now, not because 
he may not, but because it is considered wiser 
that he should not indulge in this sport which was 
once such a favourite recreation of his. Neither 
does he ride, and so his pastimes are very limited. 

The ex-Kaiserin was always fond of riding, but 
has been too ill ever since her arrival in Holland 
to do so, and she gave her favourite hack, which 
was sent to Amerongen from Germany, to Countess 
Elizabeth Bentinck last spring.* 

It is a chestnut about 16 hands up to 12 
stone, with a mane and a long tail, and must be 
familiar to visitors to Berlin before the War. 

Tea was a meal the Emperor thoroughly en- 
joyed, and scones and buns were always specially 
made for him by the Scottish housekeeper, who has 
been at Amerongen for about thirty years. When- 
ever he returns there now he likes to see her, and 
has always been most friendly to her — ^a fact she 
much appreciates, and she cannot say too much in 
his praise. 

During the summer months the hours between 
tea and dinner would be filled by watching tennis, 
walking and chatting about the garden, or maybe 
again betaking himself to the sawing. In winter, 
reading, writing, or being read to, or talking with 
any guests who might be at Amerongen, if he 
thought they would be interesting, and, of course, 
sympathetic to him. 

^ 1920. 



52 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

He doesn't play any games, nor does he care 
at all for cards. Apparently he never plays bridge, 
which would help to while away the too-long hours. 
Talking seems to be his most congenial pastime, 
and of this he never wearies. There was, how- 
ever, one thing in which he was deeply inter- 
ested, and this was the building of a Cottage 
Hospital. 

When the house which he had bought at Doom 
was ready for him to live in, and the time had 
definitely come for him to leave the sheltering roof 
of Amerongen, he felt he would like to leave a 
lasting memorial to the place in gratitude for the 
refuge it had given him at the bitterest moment 
of his downfall. Its building and equipment 
interested him very much, so that all during the 
spring and summer of 1920 he had this to occupy 
his free hours. 

It is a very nice little place, standing in its own 
grounds (given by Count Godard Bentinck). The 
whole was of German make, and the erection was 
superintended by a German foreman. It was 
designed to accommodate twelve patients. There 
were a small isolation ward to hold four cases, 
two rooms each containing four beds, a sitting- 
room looking on to a verandah, a most modernly 
equipped operating theatre, a large sterilising drum, 
two bathrooms, a cleverly arranged kitchen, and a 
pantry fitted with every possible necessity. 

Nothing was forgotten. The ex-Kaiser watched 
its rise stage by stage. He carefully inspected 
the equipment, even to the linen and to the china 
dinner and tea services, of which pieces were 
adorned with the letter " W." A German woman 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 63 

belonging to a sisterhood of nurses was placed 
in charge. She, by the way, I was interested to 
learn in a short conversation I had with her, had 
nursed British soldiers during the War. She wore 
a black costume rather like a nun's, with a black 
bonnet from which peeped a demure little white 
frill. 

The curious thing about this elaborate monu- 
ment of the ex-Kaiser's gratitude is that the 
village people seem loth to use it ! They are 
frightened of it ! They think to go there means 
certain death ; nobody would surely go to a hos- 
pital unless they were doomed ! Everything is 
there : a competent staff, equipment to deal 
with every sort of ailment, and they are decidedly 
pleased and proud to possess it and most grateful 
to the Royal donor — ^but go to it as patients ! 
No I One's case must be really desperate, they 
think, to surrender oneself into the hands of nurses 
and doctors ! 

Sometimes during the long summer evenings 
the village choir, which was superintended though 
not trained by Countess Elizabeth, would sing out 
of doors, and the sound of their voices would float 
pleasantly over the moats. In anything of this 
sort the exile took much pleasure and interest. 
And so the days would somehow be consumed. 

Dinner was a meal he never missed, being very 
different in this respect from the ex-Kaiserin, 
whose state of health, which caused continual 
anxiety, detained her in her rooms. Very often 
there would be guests for dinner, chiefly relatives 
or near neighbours of the host, and sometimes the 
Burgomasters (mayors) of Amerongen and Leersum 



54 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

were asked. On these occasions there was never 
any excess of formality. People would rise as he 
entered the room, and he was always treated as 
" the Emperor " — a practice followed, of course, 
in the immediate entourage of dethroned monarchs. 

He was most genial at the evening meal, when 
people he liked were present, and readily seized 
any excuse for a laugh. Puns on names were one 
of his little indulgences, and he soon became 
versed in all the household jokes (and the Dutch 
Bentincks are renowned for them, and keep them 
up from one generation to the next !). War and 
politics were not usually touched upon at these 
times, but he liked to hear any harmless social 
gossip about well-known people, and relished it all 
the more if these happened to be friends or ac- 
quaintances of his. 

People who are shy, and whose shyness causes 
them to be gauche, irritate him, and sometimes, if 
the women either side of him at dinner are not 
very forthcoming, and leave it to him to start a 
conversation, thinking that this is what he would 
like, he might ignore them, and shoot a sudden 
question across the table to some one whose over- 
heard conversation interests him. 

But his bonhomie can be and often is very 
marked. Hermann, the butler at Amerongen, is 
quite a character, and possesses a humorous but 
most impassive countenance. If a question arises 
at dinner about a place or date or a person's 
name that none can answer, the ex-Kaiser will 
turn to him for a solution, " Well, Hermann, and 
what do you say ? " Hermann's verdict, delivered 
with a perfectly stolid face, is always accepted as 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 55 

final. (He happens to be an extremely well-read 
butler.) 

In connection with the Emperor's likes and 
dislikes as to people's behaviour, his uncertain 
manner makes him a most difficult person to be 
sure of pleasing. I was told of a man in a well- 
known German regiment who, at receptions, 
always studiously kept out of the way, and never 
joined in the circle of admirers who gyrated round 
the Imperial magnet. This annoyed the Emperor, 

and he once remarked, " Why does Z always 

hide behind the curtains ? He can't expect me to 
go and pull him out I " On the other hand, people 
who are too forward are apt to incur his displeasure 
also. 

As I have said before, the ex-Emperor is never 
so happy as when he is talking. After dinner, 
when the rest had gone to bed (the ex-Empress, 
when she came down for this meal, always retired 
very early), Count Godard and his guest would 
sit till late into the night. It was then that the 
really animated discussions took place. 

These were something new in his life. As 
Kaiser he had been fond of talking to leaders in 
the arts and sciences, in politics and the services, 
and in industries. But these conversations in the 
days when he was continually interrupted by affairs 
had been chiefly in snatches, and could hardly be 
described as sustained and intimate. Now he was 
alone with his host, free to talk for hours without 
having to weigh his words — as in the days when 
his utterances were important, and were, moreover, 
at the mercy of newspaper reporters, who could 
twist them to mean what they liked. And here 



56 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

he was able to be simpler ; there was no necessity 
of maintaining an Olympian pose. One can 
imagine the two men sitting together thus, when the 
house was quiet with sleep. The most-discussed 
figure in contemporary history — a prisoner ! The 
eagle who never ceased to beat through the world 
with untiring wings — a prisoner ! To a man who 
never rested, this life, to say the least, must have 
been a fantastic bouleversement. 

His memory appears to be prodigious, and my 
uncle told me, when I saw him in March 1919, 
that during those first four months the Emperor 
had never repeated himself in conversation, and 
always had something interesting and knowledge- 
able to say on whatever subject was mentioned. 
He seemed to know something about everything, 
and the young Bentincks were much impressed by 
his versatility, especially when he discussed their 
collections with them, and gave them helpful 
advice, the subjects being coins and stamps. 

He was, and is, always ready to stay up to any 
hour of the night once the talk is well launched. 
He smokes endlessly on these occasions, but he 
doesn't seem to mind what he smokes, and will 
take anything he is offered or finds lying about. 
He takes up a cigar or cigarette, lights it, takes a 
few puffs, throws it away, and immediately takes 
up another. He will go on like this quite uncon- 
sciously ; and if he gets on to a favourite topic he 
will discuss it for hours and hours. He hardly 
ever sits when talking, but moves about restlessly, 
gesticulating freely. 

The relief of being able to speak quite openly 
must have been great, and perhaps, for the first 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 57 

time since his accession, he was able to show what 
sort of a man he really was, and he could cease 
having to act up to what he wished the world 
to think he was. Many subjects were, of course, 
touched upon, and in the next chapters I will try 
to give a slight indication of his views on well- 
known men and things. 



CHAPTER IV 

" But War's a game which, were their subjects wise. 
Kings would not play at." 

The Task, Cowper, 

I ASKED Count Godard Bentinck whether the 
Emperor really thought that the British Army 
was " a contemptible little army," adding that it 
was surely flying in the face of Providence to 
make such an assertion when one remembered its 
past glorious achievements ! 

His answer was that the Emperor meant, 
compared to continental armies it was small, and 
that as to the word " contemptible," people do 
not always mean what they say nor weigh their 
words when speaking in moments of intense 
pressure and excitement. 

This much-repeated phrase of the ex-Kaiser's 
has become a maddening kind of boomerang 
which keeps whizzing round in the air and con- 
tinually returning to strike its thrower. During 
the War, however, he learnt that it was by no 
means contemptible. 

Indeed, he very definitely admires the British 
Tommies. He has said so again and again. 
" Their buU-doggedness, the marvellous way they 
kept coming up," are given as perhaps their most 
outstanding characteristic. 

" The English soldiers were magnificent," said 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 59 

Captain von Ilsemann, his aide-de-camp, repeating 
to me the substance of the ex-Kaiser's continual 
references to our soldiers. " How we admired 
them ; and how — ^let me say so in all truthfulness 
— ^how we liked them ! " 

Admiration from a professional point of view 
is one thing, but " liking " is another, and, as I 
suppose I looked a little incredulous, he went on 
to explain. Some of the reasons for the liking 
are curious. " Your soldiers looked so fit and 
smart and well-turned-out compared to other 
armies," he said, " and the men were so well 
shaved ! How we looked forward to getting into 
British trenches — we knew they would be clean, 
and that we should at least find plenty of soap 
and shaving apparatus ! We appreciated these, for 
towards the end we had no more ourselves." 

Any number of rosaries, too, were found. 
" That was too funny ! " he thought, and he could 
not account for it. I suggested that these would 
only be found in any number in trenches which 
had been occupied by Irish troops. But I have 
been told that English soldiers, no matter their 
creed, bought quantities of rosaries, which they 
wore round their necks by way of adornment, so 
this fact might account for the ones found in the 
trenches in such great numbers as to cause comment. 

I asked once whether any particular regiments 
had made a special impression on their minds, 
and, although the whole Army was praised as 
being the most gallant foe any soldier could wish 
for, the achievements of the Guards were com- 
•mented upon as showing what finely disciplined 
and extra highly trained troops were capable of. 



60 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

It was thought that had the whole Army been 
trained to the pitch of these troops the War would 
have been over in half the time, but this, of course, 
it was agreed would have been impossible. It is 
difficult enough to make ten men act identically 
and simultaneously ! What a tour de force to make 
a thousand men do so ! 

The Kaiser (as he then was) made a practice 
during the War of sending for men who had had 
a share in notable deeds but had been captured. 
After the affair at Zeebrugge, he visited the place 
and informed one of the British prisoners who 
had taken a leading part in the attack that it 
was " a brilliant exploit, one of the most brilliant 
of the War ! What made you do it ? " he asked. 
" Just for a joke ! " responded the other. " How 
English ! " was the amused rejoinder. 

A thing that struck me in all these talks (and 
I would like to say here that Captain von Ilsemann 
spoke to me only of the most discussed topics of 
the day, and naturally from the German point of 
view) was the reiteration of the opinion that the 
British soldier was " always a gentleman." 

This is pleasant to be told, and shows that as a 
nation we have improved in the last hundred 
years, that is, if any credence can be placed in the 
following account, which is an extract taken from 
a letter written by Countess Bentinck, nee Countess 
Aldenburg, to her grandchild, Sophie Bentinck, 
who married Admiral Sir James Hawkins- Whitshed : 

"November 25, 1794. 

" You are making the noblest and most praise- 
worthy efforts in God's great cause " (here again 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 61 

we see the tendency shared by Philip ii. of Spain 
and WiUiam ii. of Germany to draw the name of 
the Deity into the squabbles of men) " and that of 
the Sovereigns, the laws, order, and public security, 
but all these virtuous efforts are useless and even 
harmful by reasons of the false measures adopted. 

" You pay too little attention in choosing the 
instruments you employ, and also there is a frightful 
want of discipline in your armies. 

" Instead of conquering your enemies and 
protecting your allies, your soldiers give themselves 
up to such atrocious violence and such murderous 
behaviour that your troops, who should guard the 
possessions of your allies, are, on the contrary, 
the worst of destroyers and assassins. They have 
rendered you objects of horror. . . . The English 
troops completely pillaged the Chateau of Batten- 
burg, belonging to Count de Bentheim Steinfort ; 
they did not leave one wooden skittle, and what 
they couldn't carry away they smashed to pieces 
and threw out of the windows. They committed 
the same horrors at the town of Bhiiren, belong- 
ing to the Prince Stadholder. . . . Everywhere it 
seems they have been guilty of the same excesses, 
so that all the provinces refused to receive them. 
. . . But at Nymegen they surpassed in violence 
everything that history can relate of the most 
inhuman hordes of barbarians that have ever dis- 
graced mankind. 

" Before they gave up that unhappy city it was 
they themselves, with fire and sword, who merci- 
lessly pillaged it, massacring all who opposed them, 
and not content with fighting the Dutch " (their 
allies !), " who came to help their countrymen, 
they took them prisoners and drowned them, 
destroying the bridge by which they themselves 
should have retired. The Scotch Regiment and 
that of Bentinck were the innocent victims ! . . . 



62 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

Shall I tell you without choosing my words what 
public opinion thinks of a wise and prudent nation 
which Europe once looked upon as her liberator ? 
They say that a fatal custom has unhappily taken 
firm hold in England and ruined all your actions : 
that all your measures and counsels are arrived 
at by brains overheated by porter and wine, that 
this fatal habit prevails in your councils, in your 
armies, that it has become the fashion to drink ; 
that members of the Government vie with each 
other as to who can drown and disorganise 
his intelligence the most — ^his intelligence, that 
grandest privilege of man, which alone differen- 
tiates him from the animals ! 

" One groans to see the sublimest nation in 
Europe grovel through this detestable habit, and 
enslave its glory, its power, its great talents under 
barrels and bottles ! . . . 

" Adieu, ma chere enfant. I am ill and unhappy 
about you all, and I love you as much as I detest 
Port and Burgundy and all those instruments of 
hell destined to corrupt and deteriorate the most 
estimable and honest mortals in the world." ^ 

The verdict of our twentieth-century enemies 
that "the English fought like gentlemen" and 

* Extract from the Memoirs of Charlotte Sophie, Countess 
Bentinck, by Mrs. Aubrey le Blond. 

Charlotte Sophie, reigning Countess of Aldenburg — which 
Grand-Duchy lies between Hanover and Bremen on the coast of 
the North Sea — was one of the best-known women of her day 
(17 1 5- 1 800). She was on terms of friendship with Frederick the 
Great, Voltaire, Catherine the Great, and the Queen of Sweden, 
with whom she kept up a constant correspondence, and she was 
related to a large number of the Royal houses of Middle Europe. 

Her two Bentinck granddaughters married Englishmen, re- 
spectively Sir Robert Shore Milnes, Bart., and Sir James Hawkins- 
Whitshed, Bart. It was to the eldest of her two grand- daughters 
that the letters I quote were written. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 63 

"their morale was wonderful " is satisfactory, and 
proves that the efforts of our nation builders since 
those wassailing days have not been wasted. 

Talk of the War in all its aspects was never- 
ending during the ex-Kaiser's stay at Amerongen, 
and so it is now at Doom, and in his visits to his 
old host. And when, as often happens, the sudden 
and dramatic end of the War is discussed, it is 
always to the British propaganda, with its deadly 
effect on the spirit of resistance of the German 
people, that he attributes his downfall. 

" Ach, diese propaganda von Northcliffe ! Es 
war ko-loss-al ! " (" Oh, that propaganda of North- 
cliffe ! It was colossal I ") And after repeating 
these words to me, his aide-de-camp, tapping 
his brow with his finger-points and screwing up 
his eyes, ejaculated, " Wass fur ein Mensch ! " 
(" What a man ! ") " If we had had a NorthcHffe 
we could have won the War," he added. 

I heard this said often. And I learned, while 
I was at Amerongen, that this, so far as the 
ex- Kaiser was concerned, was not a willing tribute, 
but one wrung from him. He regards Lord 
Northcliffe with intense bitterness, looks on him 
as his worst and most deadly enemy ; he cannot 
speak of the propaganda without this personal 
animosity clearly showing itself. 

Captain von Ilsemann told me that the power 
wielded by Lord Northcliffe was a constant source 
of wonderment to the exile. "It is incredible ! 
What Lord Northcliffe thinks to-day, England 
thinks to-morrow," he says. And he is puzzled 
to know why. 

The Secrets of Crewe House was sent for when 



64 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

I was there, so maybe he is now conversant with 
its contents. Practically every important English 
book on the War finds its way to Amerongen, 
and although the ex-Emperor seldom reads them 
himself, he soon hears from his friends what the 
gist of them is, and he is always kept cognisant 
of the English point of view. The Times is taken 
daily at Amerongen, and sometimes leading articles 
and criticisms of important people and books are 
shown to him. Extracts from others of our 
newspapers and periodicals also occasionally find 
their way to him. 

Possibly the editors and writers would some- 
times be surprised at the interpretation put on 
their articles at Doom ; for certain schools of 
continental thought have always believed that 
British policy is subtly Machiavellian. That Al- 
bion is perfide (France's pithy epigram on the 
British political character) is firmly held to be 
true in the minds of the Emperor and his minions. 
A book in which he was much interested was The 
Letters of Major Henry Bentinck, third son of Count 
Godard's eldest brother, and my brother-in-law. 

These letters contain more a soldier's philo- 
sophical and religious views than an account of 
his doings, but they also say some hard things of 
the Germans. He looked through the book and 
admired its arrangement, but did not read it. 

Three much-discussed books were Mr. J. M. 
Keynes' Economic Consequences of the Peace, 
which was thought to give an extremely fair view 
of the situation ; Mr. Harold Begbie's Lord 
Haldane, which was read with great interest ; and 
von Bethmann Hollweg's exposition of his policy 






MAJOR HENRY BENTINCK 

Coldstream Guards. Born 1881 — Died of Wounds 
in France 1916. (My husband's brother). 3rd son 
of Lieut. -Colonel Count Bentinck (6th Count). 
His letters have been published under the title of 
"Letters of Major Henry Bentinck." 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 65 

before and after the " scrap of paper " and " hack- 
ing through " Belgium avowals. They were sur- 
prised that the latter had not been published in 
English, in view of the notoriety of the author in 
our country ; but a translation has since appeared 
(October 1920). 

One thing the ex-Kaiser cannot understand is 
the falling of Lord Haldane into disfavour with 
the British. He considers Lord Haldane the 
greatest War Minister we have had. 

His point of view, as his aide-de-camp 
explained to me, was that Britain must have a 
strong navy, just as Germany must have a strong 
army. In addition, in Germany von Tirpitz 
wanted a strong navy, and the German people 
supported him, although they groaned under the 
taxation ; Lord Haldane was a supporter of 
national military service, but the British would 
not countenance any scheme involving conscrip- 
tion. So, according to the ex-Kaiser, the only 
thing Lord Haldane could do was to have relays 
of highly trained short-service troops, who could 
be called up at any moment after disband- 
ment, and to get raw material through the 
Territorials, arid train them so that they could 
quickly be turned into soldiers. That was a 
brilliant plan. 

" Furchtbar klug I " (" Frightfully clever I "), 
commented the adjutant. " You say Britain was 
not prepared for war. She had never been so 
prepared. She was as prepared as the people 
would allow themselves to be." 

Incidentally I told him I had been present 
in the House of Lords on the occasion of Lord 



66 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

Roberts' great speech there in favour of national 
mihtary service, and he was interested to learn 
how uncordially it had been received. 

I mentioned just now that one of the chief 
things which struck me in our conversation was 
the genuine admiration felt for the British soldier ; 
I was also struck by another point — ^their equally 
genuine dislike of British politicians. 

" We don't dislike the English, but we hate 
your politicians." It seemed to me that in the 
exile's entourage they do not consider those 
responsible for guiding British policy so stupid as 
the British themselves are inclined to think ! 

And this view seems to be held also by the 
French, judging by a statement made in the 
Paris Senate on 21st March 1921 by M. Lucien 
Hubert, reporter of the Senate's Foreign Affairs 
Committee. 

" Great Britain," he said, " showed her skill 
in winning friends everywhere, having allies in 
every political party and group abroad, making 
use of everything British, without exception of 
party or doctrine, supporting her friends till 
their final triumph, rescuing them when in 
danger, and protecting them in time of stress. 
That," he said, " was the basis of British propa- 
ganda, and she had eyes and ears and hands 
everywhere." 

President Wilson, the ex-Kaiser thinks, gave 
the final tip-over to his tottering throne — a view 
not without its piquancy when we remember that 
the President (to quote Mr. Keynes) " was made 
in Paris to appear to be taking the part of the 
Germans, and laid himself open to the suggestion 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 67 

— ^to which he was very sensitive — of being ' pro- 
German.' " 

How the President's influence told is set forth 
in this fashion. The President had announced 
that he would never make peace with a Hohen- 
zoUern ; and thus it would have been excessively 
difficult for the Kaiser to make a stand for his 
dynasty in Germany itself without bringing added 
disasters to the country, with the Allied armies 
already nearing its frontiers. 

The people were starving, the morale of 
the army had gone, and Germany was well- 
nigh mad with hunger and unrest caused by 
Bolshevist agent provocateur, German Socialists, 
and Northcliffe propaganda. All they wanted 
was food, and nothing but peace could bring 
them that. 

In the ordinary course of events the Emperor 
need not necessarily have abdicated because he 
had lost the War, but he was forced to this action 
by Wilson's ultimatum. 

\^^at puzzled the ex-Kaiser for long was that 
the German people, who had been so obedient to 
his will, so dazzled by his might and so fulsome in 
adulation for thirty years, should have so lightly 
let him go in November 1918 ; and, moreover, 
that they should have abandoned him, "the 
All Highest," for persons whose position was 
not such as to gain them much public esteem in 
official-worshipping Germany — ^persons destitute 
alike of social prestige and experience in the 
complicated art of governing. 

That, indeed, puzzles him still ; but he has 
some explanations ready, now that he has 



68 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

had leisure to reflect on the events of that 
November. The ease with which the change was 
made was, in his opinion, due to a misrepresenta- 
tion of the motives which caused him to flee to 
HoHand. 

The German people, he thinks, were led to 
believe that by his flight he had deserted them 
in their hour of greatest need, and, as a result, 
anger against him became as bitter as trust before 
had been complete. Perhaps they would not have 
accepted this view, and certainly would not have 
submitted to their new leaders, had they not been 
badly shaken by our propaganda and by privations 
at home and bewildered by the disasters in the 
field ; and, above all, if the Allied resolve to make 
" no peace with a Hohenzollern " had not been 
dinned into their ears. 

A contributory factor is believed to have been 
the work of the German Socialists. They had 
for more than two years sought to break the 
fighting spirit of the army and of the youths 
whose turn was coming to fill the ranks. Mothers 
and wives (this is the official version) had been 
paid a weekly sum as bribe to write distressed 
and distressing letters to relatives at the Front, 
with a view to weakening their morale as much as 
possible. 

The imputation that his flight was due to 
concern for his own bodily safety without regard 
to the people's interest still rankles in the ex- 
Kaiser's mind. What else was there for him to 
do but withdraw ? he asks ; and then he goes 
over again the story of the first days of the 
Revolution. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 69 

He proposed to go to Berlin. " Give me some 
troops," he said to Hindenburg. " There are no 
troops that will follow Your Majesty there," 
replied the veteran. " What ! None ? " " None, 
Your Majesty ! " He then thought he would 
reach Berlin somehow, anyhow, to be at the 
heart of the trouble. Inquiries were made to the 
capital. He was told by telegraph that he must 
not come ; that the streets were running with 
blood. His entourage urged him not to go, as 
that would only add to the country's plight with- 
out any advantage to him. Then Prince Max of 
Baden's hasty announcement of an abdication 
proved decisive. 

It has been pointed out that Hindenburg on 
his return to Berlin got a magnificent reception ; 
but that was after he had taken the armies 
back, and — ^Hindenburg was not the Kaiser ; his 
presence did not affect the political situation. 
Suicide as an alternative to flight was freely 
spoken of in England, people perhaps remember- 
ing how often the Kaiser's ancestor, Frederick the 
Great, had contemplated this escape from the 
evils that followed his too frequent wars. But 
there were plenty of precedents for the flight of 
monarchs and their temporary or permanent 
residence outside their country during revolu- 
tions ; and the ease with which Holland could be 
reached must have been tempting. 

I heard the theory discussed that it would 
have been to the advantage of the dynasty, or, at 
any rate, of the monarchical idea, not to sign 
the Armistice conditions offered. It is considered 
that had Baron von Lersner, representing the old 



70 THE EX-IOilSER IN EXILE 

school, and not Herr Erzberger, representing the 
transitional, been in charge on the German side 
during the negotiations the history of the next 
few months would have been written differently. 

A refusal to sign and a continued retreat 
before the Allied armies would not necessarily, 
according to this view, have involved much 
additional slaughter ; the German Army, we were 
told, had not then sufficient fit divisions to do 
much fighting. On the other hand, the late Lord 
Fisher in his Memoirs relates that G^eneral Plumer 
had told him that he was personally convinced 
of the efficiency of the German Army at the 
moment of the Armistice. We also read in the 
same book a statement of Mr. Lloyd George's 
in the Guildhall, 9th November 1918, that one 
of our foremost Ministers had said on the previous 
Sunday that " the Allied Powers were on their 
last legs." 

All this evidence is very conflicting, and per- 
haps we are still too near to the subject to get 
the true perspective. Had the Armistice not been 
signed when it was. Allied troops would have 
presumably marched to Berlin notwithstanding 
the above statements, for Mr. H. C. O'Neil in his 
History of the War tells us the French had many 
fresh divisions ready to move if the Armistice 
terms were not accepted. 

Again we read in Could We Have Avoided or 
Won the War? by Colonel Bauer (Ludendorff's 
political adviser), that "the second Battle of 
the Marne was the first great disaster and the 
real turning-point of the War." Even in July 
he said that the army was worn out, yet Von 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 71 

Kiihlman, whose opinion is to be trusted, was 
displaced by the military clique for saying that 
" the War was not to be ended by purely military 
decisions." ^ 

The Monarchist idea seemed to be, that had 
the Allies gone to Berlin much bloodshed would 
have been avoided, and their occupation would 
have led to the establishment of order by the 
bringing of food and relief. The feeling in those 
circles seems to be that undue pressure was 
brought to bear upon Herr Erzberger, who, in 
their opinion, should not have signed the Armistice 
so hastily. 

The dominating idea was that the old hereditary 
ruling faction knew what would eventually be for 
the good of the people better than the men who, 
by a sudden extraordinary turn of fortune, found 
themselves masters of an immense power which 
they were not trained to handle. 

I noticed that Monarchists, while brooding 
over such ideas, were more angry with their fellow- 
Germans for abandoning the Kaiser than with the 
Allies for seeking his overthrow ; the latter was 
an understandable course in enemies, the former 
an unforgivable crime ! And the more the ex- 
Kaiser reflects on the circumstances of his fall, the 
more does it appear to him that " the unkindest 
cut of all " came from his former subjects rather 
than from his enemies. For his opinion is that he 
strove to do, and in fact did, great things for his 
country in all departments of world-trade and 
politics ; that his country's benefit was always 
placed first. Even for the War, inglorious though 

» H. C. O'Neil, History of the War. 



72 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

its ending was for him, he thinks he can make a 
case before Germans. 

And, after all, for whom and what was he 
displaced ? As he walks about the grounds in 
Doom, the question leaves him " marvelling 
greatly." 



CHAPTER V 

" To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual ways of 
preserving peace." — George Washington. 

" An armed peace keeps the peace." — Bismarck. 

The rapid strides taken by Socialists and Social 
Democrats in governing Europe is a continual 
source of comment by the ex-Kaiser. As a rule 
he is reserved in his remarks on British public 
men, but one thing about them which strikes 
him is that they are still so largely drawn from 
the old ruling classes. Lord Curzon, the Cecils, 
Mr. Balfour, Mr. Churchill, are, he thinks, 
of a type almost unique in the Governments 
of post-war Europe. The circumstance is com- 
mented on when, as often enough happens, the 
relative advantages of absolute and limited mon- 
archies are considered. Mr. Lloyd George is con- 
sidered more of the type that comes to the front 
in France. 

Mr. Churchill is admired for the part he played 
in the Gallipoli adventure, and also because he is 
believed to be largely responsible for the intro- 
duction of the Tanks — ^the Tanks which were so 
typical of England ! Heavy and slow, but how 
relentless when once set in motion ! 

Gallipoli, in fact, is more talked of than any 
other war exploit on the British side. The con- 
ception w^as " marvellous." If it had succeeded 

lO 



74 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

how brilliant would have been the results ! " Do 
you know how nearly you were through ? " 
Captain von Ilsemann asked me. " You were 
through once, in fact, if you had had enough 
reserves to push on." 

But the most wonderful thing in the eyes of 
the ex-Kaiser was the landing and holding-on by 
our soldiers. To be able to get men to do a thing 
like that was astonishing. He thought it would 
be a most difficult thing to get troops anywhere in 
the world to attempt what they achieved. 

But when one saw the superb specimens of 
manhood which Australia sent over, one could well 
believe that there was nothing such troops would 
tremble at, and the names of these splendid bush- 
raised boys will be for ever remembered in wonder 
and gratitude by England. 

During the War, Australia's naval expenditure 
amounted to more than £37,000,000. It is almost 
incredible that a nation consisting of 5,000,000 
of people should have borne manfully such a 
crushing burden, and this wonderful feat will 
ever stand out gloriously in their annals. In 
his speech on Anzac Day, April 1921, Mr. Churchill 
referred to the Australian troops thus : 

" That event (the coming of the Australians 
and New Zealanders) was unprecedented in all 
history. Never before had an army of that kind 
been drawn across such tremendous distances by 
the compulsion purely of ideas and sentiments. 
Even as a purely military operation the landing 
on the Gallipoli Peninsula would always rank as 
an achievement of the first order." 

I have travelled in all our Colonies, and the 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 75 

thing which struck me and touched me the most 
was that whenever they used the word " Home " 
they always meant England — even those who had 
been born in the Dominions. 

Mr. Churchill came in for a great deal of 
attention on account of his speech in the House of 
Commons last July, and his subsequent article in 
the liondon Evening News (28th July 1920) on the 
menace of the Bolshevist armies and the part 
Germany might play in meeting it. "A Poland 
broken," he wrote, " would mean a Germany con- 
fronted with an awful, a wonderful choice. . . . 
It would be open to the German people either to 
sink their own social structure in the Bolshevist 
welter, or by a supreme effort of firmness, self- 
restraint, and courage to build a dyke of lawful, 
patient strength against the flood of Red Bar- 
barism flowing from the East." 

There was general agreement with that view. 
" But," pointed out Captain von Ilsemann, " one 
moment you want us to be a bulwark — sl dyke of 
lawful, patient strength — ^and the next we are only 
allowed 200,000 men, not even enough to police 
our frontiers, far less to control the arming of 
Bolshevists or Spartakists in Germany." 

Perhaps it is not strange that talk should 
seldom turn on the war on the sea ; the ex-Kaiser's 
natural place was in the field, not on the wave. 
What repercussions on Doom recent discussions 
here of the Battle of Jutland have had I do not 
know, though I am sure the controversy is being 
closely followed ; but I heard no allusions to naval 
matters while I was at Amerongen excepting the 
following : 



76 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

A German naval officer told me about the 
struggle at Kiel just before the end. No amount 
of organisation, he said, could have kept the war- 
ship crews in hand. They were practically never 
out of port, and discipline gradually broke down ; 
it was a wonder to him that the men " stuck it " 
as long as they did. As it was the work of our 
Navy that kept the men shut up in port, and as 
it was by the Kiel mutiny (and the British propa- 
ganda) that the Revolution was set going, this 
testimony may help as a juster idea of the share 
of the Navy in the closing stages of the War. 

He told me that in order to escape from Kiel 
with his life he had to discard his uniform, but 
before doing this " it was necessary I had some 
others to put on, you see," and he had a prolonged 
search to find a disreputable enough suit of clothes 
to render him immune from sudden attacks of an 
exceedingly unpleasant nature. 

On the other hand, I was told that the sailors met 
in the train after leaving Kiel were the gentlest of men, 
and willingly handed their food to an English lady 
(my informant) who happened to be travelling with a 
great many of them on the night of the Revolution. 

Air fighting is another neglected theme. I 
never heard of any talk about the raids on London, 
excepting when the ex-Kaiser's aide-de-camp asked 
me about my experiences. I told him of an hotel 
dinner at Claridge's during the week in September 
1917, when there were four raids on the town, and 
of how uncaring and fatalistic every one seemed to 
be ; of the exceeding gaiety of the guests ; and of 
the fact that whenever the shelling became hideously 
loud the band played louder still. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 77 

" But how could you ? " he asked. 

I told him that from what I had seen — ^that 
was in the West End — people didn't really seem to 
mind much, and became quite accustomed to the 
raids ; and that we had stood at the hotel door to 
watch the shrapnel running down the street as 
though blown by a giant wind. 

" But how could you ? " he repeated. " It 
must have been terrible, terrible ! " And alto- 
gether he was much struck to hear how little, on 
the whole, people had been affected. 

This had been a form of warfare which he had 
not experienced, and he was interested to hear of 
the coming of the Zeppelins over my old home 
Exton, in Rutland ; of how the first intimation of 
their proximity was a muffled, rhythmical booming 
which was heard down the chimneys, followed by 
the fluttering and crowing of the pheasants. I 
told him of one occasion when many bombs were 
dropped within a few miles of the place into a 
field in which turnips had been stacked in conical 
heaps. There had been a heavy fall of snow the 
day before, and these were thickly covered and 
perhaps looked like the tops of tents. Any- 
how, no other reason could be imagined for the 
dropping of a considerable number of bombs 
in this very isolated spot. On this occasion 
the house rocked, and several panes of glass 
were broken. The noise was both terrifying and 
terrific. 

I spoke of the Daily Mail map, showing the 
places hit in the raids on London ; these included 
the Royal Mint, St. Pancras Station, Victoria 
Embankment, Ministry of Munitions, North- 



78 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

Western Railway, War Office, Scotland Yard, and 
the Admiralty, but he had not seen it. 

During his exile the ex-Kaiser has meditated 
much on the relative advantages of autocracy and 
constitutional monarchy. His conclusion is, I 
gathered, that a limited monarchy is the form of 
government best suited in our days— a fairly 
obvious one for him after his experiences. 

In his book, Count Czernin, Austro-Hungarian 
Foreign Minister in Berlin, says : "In his youth 
the Emperor William did not always adhere 
strictly to the laws of Constitution ; he sub- 
sequently cured himself of this failing, and never 
acted independently of his councillors. At the 
time when I had official dealings with him he 
might have served as a model for Constitutional 
conduct." 

It seems there has always been a difference of 
opinion between the Prussian kings and their 
people as to the best mode of governing, and 
Frederick William iv. (1795-1861) greatly dis- 
liked the Prussian Bureaucratic Government and 
wanted to turn it into a Constitutional Monarchy. 

During the Revolution in 1848 he appeared as 
a Nationalist. He was succeeded by his brother, 
William i., first German Emperor and most beloved 
of Prussian rulers. William ii. has said that he, 
too, thinks a Constitutional Monarchy to be the 
best, though the public might find this hard to 
believe remembering his summary dismissal of 
Prince Bismarck. 

" "What made you send him away ? " Count 
Godard Bentinck once asked the ex-Emperor, 
when the Iron Chancellor's name cropped up in 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 79 

conversation during one of their long evening talks 
at Amerongen. 

" Let nobody think I did not admire Bismarck," 
he replied. " I think he was one of the most 
remarkable men of the age. But I was very young, 
and I saw that Bismarck would be the uncrowned 
Emperor. / could not tolerate that. He or I had 
to go." 

As the years went on he learned to accept 
much that was " intolerable " to him earlier. 

He holds that it was largely the bureaucrats of 
Europe who brought on the War, and I shall refer 
to this later in regard to a little incident relating 
to Sukhomlinoff.* 

Naturally the then autocrat of the United 
States figured largely in the discussions with his 
host, to which the sittings of the Peace Conference 
gave rise. " Oh, Wilson ! " ^ he exclaimed to Count 
Godard. " He is a greater autocrat than I or the 
Czar of Russia ever was. He has got more power 
than either of us had. I call him Kaiser Wilson." 

But his views on the limitations of that personal 
power were much the same as those current 
among diplomatists at that time. " You can see 
he does not understand the Old Europe. It will 
break him." 

Similarly he shared the common doubts of the 
possibihty of establishing a real League of Nations. 
Only if men were ideal beings could the scheme 
succeed ; as mankind is constituted at present, it 
was an impracticable proposal. But although he 
laughs at Wilson for his ambitious autocratic 

* Russian War Minister, 1914. 

2 President of the United States during the Great War. 



80 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

ideas, it was always rather repugnant to him to 
suffer any infringement of his absolute control in 
State affairs ; and I doubt if the idea is any less 
repugnant to him now, clearly though he sees an 
even greater Hmitation was necessary. To get a 
true mental picture of the man's environment — 
and environment is nearly everything — one must 
remember that the idea of the " Divine Right of 
Kings " (the origins for which belief are so ably put 
forth by Sir George Frazer in his remarkable book 
The History of the Divinity of Kingship) was no 
empty phrase to him, but a deep reality confirmed 
by the traditions of his House, his dazzUng position 
in the eyes of the world, and his firm conviction 
that he was in some sort of mysterious way the 
" vice-regent " of Christ on earth. 

His belief was a natural outcome of the " Holy 
Roman Empire " idea of Pope and Emperor ruling 
Europe between them, one representing the Deity 
in spiritual things and the other in material affairs. 
No doubt he was attracted by the notion of re- 
viving the " Empire " in some modernised form. 
It will not be forgotten that he visited Leo xiii. 
in Rome, and that this event was followed by a 
distinct rapprochement between the Vatican and 
Germany, Protestant Power though the latter was. 

It may or may not be significant in this con- 
nection to remember that on his retirement in 
1909 Billow (a Prince of Prussia since 1905), and 
" My Bernard," as his Royal master affectionately 
called him, went to live in Rome with his Italian 
wife. Princess Marie Camporeale, since when only 
the grave has excelled him in silence. It will 
be remembered that he rejected Mr. Chamberlain's 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 81 

overtures for an Anglo-German-American Alliance, 
and that he never took much trouble to relax the 
Anglo-German tension, for so long a bogey in 
Europe. 

Now, when the ex-Kaiser considers the role 
of a ruler in the light of his experiences, it is the 
disadvantages of autocracy that are most apparent 
to him. " The world says I am mad," he said some 
time after his abdication, " but if it knew what 
tremendous difficulties I have had to contend with it 
would perhaps be surprised that I am at all sane." 

With sixty millions of Germans putting photo- 
graphs of " Unser Kaiser " in their front parlours, 
and with flatterers fawning at his feet — " he, I 
think," says Count Czernin, " was the only monarch 
in Europe whose hand it was customary to kiss ; 
not even the Hapsburgs suffered their entourage 
to do this " ; and to what really nauseating 
flattery he was subjected may be learned from Dr. 
Bodam Kiiegan's Der Kaiser im Felde — with such 
stimulants to the belief that he was a demi-god it 
is not surprising that he found " tremendous diffi- 
culties " when confronted with the hard facts of 
the outer world that are so different from courtiers' 
fanciful pictures. 

Another monarch who firmly believed in the 
" Divine Right " was Philip ii. of Spain, whose 
conception of his place in the Universe is illustrated 
by the fact that he required all important docu- 
ments submitted to him to begin " God and Your 
Majesty." His laboriousness, his unconquerable 
patience, and his great mental calmness, all seem 
to have been an imitation of Providence, of whom 
he considered himself the junior partner. 
II 



82 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

Indeed, some of William ii.'s utterances during 
the War might easily have been based on Philip ii.'s 
speeches to his troops in the Netherlands. 

Early in 1919, when the exile's character and 
doings were being widely discussed, I asked Count 
Godard Bentinck whether it was really the fact 
that the ex- Kaiser had the opinion of himself that 
his reported constant allusions to the Deity and 
himself seemed to show. I said I could not believe 
this, and that it must be the newspapers' way of 
making him ridiculous in the eyes of the world. 
But I was told, " No ; he has always been brought 
up like that, you see, and it is not to be wondered 
at that he has these feelings very deeply planted 
in him." 

The following letter, written to Bethmann- 
HoUweg on 31st October 1916, and purporting to 
be from the Emperor, gives an idea of his mind : 

"My dear Bethmann, — I have long been 
turning our conversation over in my mind. It is 
clear that the peoples of the enemy countries, 
kept in a morbid war atmosphere and labouring 
under lies and frauds, deluded also by fighting 
and hatred, possess no men who are able, or who 
have the moral courage to speak the word which 
will bring relief — ^to propose peace. 

J . " What is wanted is a moral deed, to free the 
world, including neutrals, from the pressure which 
weighs upon all. For such a deed it is necessary 
to find a ruler who has a conscience, who feels 
that he is responsible to God, who has a heart 
for his own people and for those of his enemies, 
who, indifferent as to any possible wilful inter- 
pretation of his actions, possesses the will to free 
the world from its sufferings. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 83 

" I have the courage. Trusting in God I shall 
dare to take this step. Please draft notes on these 
lines, and submit them to me and make all the 
necessary arrangements without delay. 

" (Signed) William I.R." 

This letter, although written in October, was 
not published in Germany till 14th January 1917, 
because the German Socialists were at that time 
claiming to have been the prime movers in pro- 
ducing the Peace Note. 

At Amerongen all talk sooner or later turned 
to the War. And the ex- Kaiser steadily maintains 
that he did all he could to prevent it. " God 
knows I am innocent of what my enemies charge 
me with, and that to me is the only thing that 
matters," he says. *' My conscience is clear before 
God, and what other people think can't be helped." 

It is true that there was much that was con- 
tradictory in the arguments I heard repeated, 
some of them on the familiar lines that the mere 
march of events would inevitably have brought 
the rivalry of Britain and Germany to a head in 
an armed clash later, if not in 1914. 

Often he spoke of what an impossible position 
his was just before the War broke out and again 
just before the Armistice. 

" I never knew whom to believe," he said. 
"People would tell me so-and-so was the case, 
and yet I could never be sure that I was being 
told the truth." 

No wonder he contrasts with some envy the 
strong foundations and established functions of 
limited monarchy with the deceptive illusions and 
uncertainties of autocracy ! 



84 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

An experience of my own, however, throws 
some Hght on the ex-Kaiser's claim. I was on 
my way back from Bayreuth to England on 
1st August 1914. As our long, overladen train 
dragged itself slowly through the peaceful country, 
where the ripe corn was lazily waving in the late 
afternoon sunshine, I stood for a long time at 
the window of the corridor, long enough to see 
the light go. Then from the shadows outside I 
heard low, muffled words. They seemed to me to 
be thrown at the slow- moving train in a curious 
Sphinx-like, fatalistic way. " Mobil ist's . . . 
Mobil ist's . . . Mobil ist's. . . ." Then I saw it 
was from the Landsturm posted at intervals along 
the line that the catastrophic words came. The 
British mind at once jumped to the conclusion, 
"So this is then ' Der Tag.'' " (At Amerongen, by 
the way, they would have none of " Der Tag " idea. 
They said it was a tiny and very unimportant 
matter which the English Press had magnified.) 

For the remainder of that journey through 
Germany I talked with many Germans. They 
left me under the impression that they looked upon 
the Emperor as being against war. I remember 
distinctly one constantly repeated saying, "The 
Kaiser is the Peace-Kaiser. He doesn't want war. 
But the Crown Prince wants war." And I re- 
member, too, that in the German newspapers 
which we read feverishly that day it was pointed 
out that in Berlin the Kaiser was coolly received, 
but that the Crown Prince, on the other hand, 
was vociferously cheered because it was believed 
he sympathised with the war party, which un- 
doubtedly existed in Germany. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 85 

People in England have often been puzzled as 
to why Germany went to war. She was winning 
the commerce of the world and the power which 
that carries — ^then how extraordinarily stupid of 
her to plunge into the risks of war ! I pointed 
out this view to Captain von Ilsemann, the ex- 
Kaiser's aide-de-camp, with the added comment 
that the British certainly did not seek a fight. 

" But would Britain have sat down quietly 
for another ten years and watched us absorb- 
ing the commerce of the world ? " he replied. 
" Surely not, as it would mean ruin for her. It 
was natural she should wish to stop our develop- 
ment. War was the only way to do it. So ! " 

" I congratulate you," he continued. " Britain 
has achieved most fully and gloriously what she 
went out to achieve. She has put Germany back 
for twenty years. ... It remains for her to keep 
what she has wrested from us." 

I saw some similarity in this to the views of 
a German general at a dinner-party in Dresden in 
November 1911, and I related my conversation 
with him to Captain von Ilsemann. The general, 
elderly, fat, and with long, overhanging eyebrows, 
was sitting next to me, and immediately after 
we had finished soup he turned to me and asked 
in perfect English, " And do you believe we are 
going to war with England ? " Feeling that it 
did not in the least matter what I thought, I 
nevertheless responded, "Yes, I do think so." — 
" Why ? Do you believe this fellow Blatchford ? 
Do you believe the Daily Mail ? No important 
people in England believe it, do they ? " I 
answered that the Daily Mail, I thought, had a 



86 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

great deal of power. — " But do you believe we 
want to go to war ? " he insisted. " We love your 
beautiful England." — " Yes," I answered, " you 
love her because you would like to possess her — 
that's the way you love her I " This seemed to 
amuse him very much. 

" But why should we want war ? " he con- 
tinued. " We are both very happy and con- 
tented." To this I answered that I could 
understand it, for, were I a German, I might 
be annoyed at seeing England take first place in 
the world. I should want my own country to 
be first. I shouldn't like to be only No. 2 in 
the world. 

There was a slight pause, and then, bending 
towards me and resting his hand on my arm, he 
said slowly, " Ah, there speaks a proud English- 
woman" ("cine stolze kleine Englanderin" were 
the words he used). " And you are quite right, 
my dear ! We do want to go to war, but not 
until England is weak enough and Germany is 
strong enough. But to go to war with England 
we must have more seaboard. So Belgium and 

Holland — wht " and he made a significant 

gesture with his hands. Then, shaking his fore- 
finger at me, he said, " England is now at three 
o'clock, when the sun shines the brightest." 

I was astonished to hear this phrase again, as, 
curiously enough, precisely the same words had 
been said to me one year before at a ball in Vienna 
given by the German Ambassador Herr von 
Tschirschky. 

Captain von Ilsemann's comment on the story 
was that there this view did obtain in certain 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 87 

military circles, and there was always a more or 
less aggressive party in all countries. 

There was never any hesitation at Amerongen 
in fixing the blame for the actual outbreak of war 
in 1914 on Russia. Indeed, it was an article of 
faith in the entourage that St. Petersburg had set 
the great machine in motion. 

The Russian side of the beginning of hostilities 
is difficult to fathom. We read : " On the 30th 
July the French Ambassador, M. Cambon,^ told 
Sir Edward Grey * that he felt Germany would 
most likely call upon France to cease preparation 
or to engage to remain neutral in case of a conflict 
between Germany and Russia." ^ 

Bismarck, it will be remembered, once remarked 
that a breach with Russia could very easily be 
cauterised, so perhaps Germany didn't fear her 
very much as a foe. 

" It was a war made by bureaucrats," was a 
phrase I heard more than once. Sukhomlinoff, 
the Russian Minister of War, was the villain of the 
piece. I was told of the exile's view of " Sukhom- 
linoff' s treachery " : " How he had forced the 
Czar in a really terrible interview to sign against 
his will the order for general mobilisation ; how 
the Czar later regretted his action, sent for the 
Minister, and instructed him to cancel the order ; 
how the Minister replied that the order was 

* French Ambassador to the Court of St. James in 1914. 

* English Foreign Minister in 19 14. (His great-grandaunt 
Elizabeth Grey, daughter of Sir George Grey, first Baronet, married 
my great-grandfather, Charles Noel, first Earl of Gainsborough, 
second creation. She died at eighteen, and her only child was my 
grandfather. 

3 H. C. O'Neil, History of the War. 



88 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

already being carried out, and could not be 
countermanded without hopeless confusion ; and 
how, in saying so, he was lying, the unissued 
order being in his pocket at that moment." 

The Czar, it is understood, signed the order 
on the afternoon of Wednesday, 29th July. As 
to when it was issued there is a conflict of evidence, 
regarding which an experience of my own has, I 
think, an important bearing. Bethmann HoUweg, 
in his book published last year,* said : " Then on 
the morning of 31st July, General Sukhomlinoff 
finally convinced the Czar himself of the necessity 
of mobilisation." With this, Mr. H. C. O'Neil, in 
his History of the War, agrees : "It was at this 
point, 31st July, that Russia decided to announce 
general mobilisation." 

My point is that the news of the Russian 
mobilisation was known in Germany on Thursday, 
30th July, and the presumption therefore is that 
Sukhomlinoff issued the order when it was signed 
— i.e. on 29th July. 

From 20th July to 1st August 1914 I was at 
Bayieuth, in Bavaria, for the Wagner Festival. 
On 30th July I motored with friends to Rothen- 
burg, a show mediaeval town in Germany, and 

that night dined with Count Z , who had two 

sons in smart German regiments. I shall always 
remember his fury against the Russians. I can 
see him now strutting up and down the room like 
a bantam cock — he was a small man, and had 
covered himself for that occasion with medals 
which he had gained at the Battle of Sadowa ! 

" Es ist unverschamt (it is positively shameless) 
* 1920. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 89 

of the Russians to mobilise against us," he said 

angrily. " How dare they send (mentioning 

the number) army corps to fight us ? They must 
be mad ! What are they doing it f or ? " His 
intense fury with the Russians was quite un- 
intelligible to me at that time, and, moreover, I 
was far too much taken up with the music I had 
been hearing in the last few days and the unique 
charm of Rothenburg to be interested in politics. 

But he, at any rate, knew on 30th July of the 
Russian mobilisation. And the scene came back 
vividly to me when, in Holland in 1919, I heard the 
talk about Sukhomlinoff and how he " tricked " 
the Czar about the issue of the order. 

As I have mentioned Bayreuth I might tell 
of how we ourselves noticed mobilisation in 
progress under our very eyes in the opera-house 
there. 

During the performance of Gotterddmmerung, 
which we witnessed on Wednesday, 29th, the places 
occupied by Austrian officers during one act 
were empty in the next, and the orchestra and 
chorus were being gradually depleted as, of course, 
these were composed of nationalities other than 
German. 

We were immensely struck by the contrast on 
Friday, 31st July, when we were present at the 
performance of The Flying Dutchman. The town 
was in gala, gaily bedecked with flags and garlands 
of leaves in honour of the Crown Prince of Bavaria 
(so much in the public eye later), who was attend- 
ing the Festival ; but as we drove out of the town 
away through the pinewoods to our hotel, the 
scene changed : the insouciance of normal times 

12 



90 THE EX-I^ISER IN EXILE 

suddenly slipped away and we were confronted 
with a " state of war," for marching towards us 
in the sweet -smelling still summer night were 
troops, and then we realised that the phantom 
we had all talked of — perhaps a little lightly — for 
years past had indeed become a terrible reality. 
All the maids in our hotel were weeping, and one 
of them threw her arms round my neck, sobbing 
and saying, " Ach warum hat der Kaiser krieg 
gemacht ? Wir war en alle so gliicklich. Warum 
hat er es gethan." (" Oh, why did the Emperor 
m.ake war ? We were all so happy. Why did 
he do it ? ") Always in Germany I was struck by 
the way the people (I mean the Volk [peasant]) 
spoke so personally of the Emperor. It seemed 
he was much more spoken of as having power 
in public things which affected them than is our 
King here. 

In England it is generally the Government which 
is inveighed against, or, more vaguely still, " they." 

This reminds me of the story of the youthful 
maid of honour who is reported as having said 
in the hearing of Queen Victoria : " Oh, I believe 
they've made five new Peers." 

The Queen's answer came swiftly and very 
quietly : " They, my dear ? " 

At first the Kaiser was very anxious to know 
what English people thought and said of him, and 
particularly what former English friends believed 
about him. He spoke to Count Godard with 
much affection of these old friends, and, indeed, 
appeared to look back to old days in England with 
a sort of wistfulness. Often he spoke of how 
much he had enjoyed his visits there. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 91 

One was forced to remember, on learning of 
his still repeatedly expressed liking for English 
ways, that he was the son of an English Princess, 
who had — ^like all English Princesses — clung with 
patriotic love to all that was English. Wliat he 
admired particularly, although I don't believe he 
likes unconventionality in his own surroundings, 
was the social freedom and unconventionality, 
judged by continental standards, of English people. 

He envied their individualistic spirit generally. 
Germans had been winning considerable distinction 
in athletics in late pre-war years, but it was 
chiefly in trained and regimental fashion — as, for 
example, you would get a score of Germans to 
dive to an instant as one man — ^to vv^hich their 
whole existence in subjugation to one leader or 
another rendered them apt. It will be recalled 
that he tried to vary this " at the word of com- 
mand " spirit by efforts to introduce games in 
which individual initiative has some scope, as, 
for instance, in golf. These efforts were not 
successful ; but they may perhaps be taken as 
indication of the suppressed English side of his 
nature trying to assert itself. 

It seems tbat he always liked talking to English 
people when he had the chance. I recall a certain 
occasion (not so very long before the War) when 
at a party which consisted chiefly of German and 
Dutch people he chose quite markedly to converse 
with an Englishwoman, saying, " Well, and what 
about England ? " adding, with a humorous look, 
" Still got that d- d Liberal Government ? " 



CHAPTER VI 

" But, oh, the truth, the truth, the many eyes that look on it, 
the diverse things they see." — George Meredith. 

And so the days passed until June 1920, when 
the ex-Kaiser at last left the kindly roof of Amer- 
ongen, which in his woe and confusion had given 
him " sanctuary," and betook himself to his new 
abode. Doom. 

Before he acquired this property the ex- 
Kaiser had had a long search for a home. It 
began soon after he came to Amerongen. There 
are very few big houses, as English people under- 
stand them, in Holland ; so that the search under- 
taken by his friends was difficult. Belmonte, 
belonging to Baroness Justine Constant and her 
sister. Countess Piickler, a house about as far from 
Amerongen on the one side as Doom is on the 
other, was at one time considered, but the project 
fell through. Then one of the most beautifully 
wooded properties in the country (from the 
windows of the house one can see into Germany) 
came into the market, but owing to some delay on 
the financial side of the transaction the place fell 
into other hands. 

The traveller who motors along the straight, 
stone-paved high road from Utrecht to Arnhem 
can, near the village of Doom, get a passing 
glimpse of a white, unpretentious house in the 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 93 

middle of a wood. It is there that the former 
head of the German Empire now lives. 

If he stops at the village " restaurant " for 
luncheon the traveller is perhaps told nonchalantly 
by a waiter that " the Emperor " lives there, but 
unless he inquires he will hear no more ; for the 
people of the village have become used to the 
exile's proximity, and regard it with character- 
istic Dutch phlegm, not to say indifference. 

If he be curious to find more, he can go along 
the avenue, about half a mile in length, from the 
high road to the entrance, and, standing at the iron 
gates — ^and there is no rule forbidding people to 
go so far — ^he can look into the grounds and view 
portions of the house not screened by trees. 
Very often the ex-Kaiser can be seen in his shirt- 
sleeves at his favourite occupation of cutting up 
trees near the road leading to the house. 

This sequestered residence (it is about four 
miles from the nearest railway station, Drie- 
bergen) looks more like the retreat of a successful 
merchant than the country house we are accus- 
tomed to in England. It has no architectural 
beauties, and the grounds in which it is set are 
very small ; a newly grown wood and a few fields 
form the confines. There is no moat such as 
surrounds most country houses in canal-intersected 
Holland, and the gates and lodge are insignificant 
in appearance. 

Since he bought it the ex-Kaiser has spent a 
great deal of money in improving the property. 
Many rooms have been added to the fabric, and 
bath, electric light, central heating, and scientific 
cooking arrangements have been installed by or 



94 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

under the superintendence of German workmen. 
A large entrance hall has been built, and in it has 
been placed a magnificent marble staircase brought 
from the Royal castle in Berlin. 

Cottages were built for the servants, to house 
their wives and children ; and near Doom — a 
prosperous-looking village of from 1500 to 2000 
inhabitants, whose houses stand in their own 
well-kept little plots of ground, and are solidly 
built and painted in gay colours — a house has 
been rented for his gentlemen attendants, who only 
go to him for the day, and do not sleep under his 
roof. This is a pleasant little villa, situated away 
from the highway down a little wooded road — a 
quiet spot where it is possible for them to enjoy a 
certain amount of privacy. Among the occupants 
is the doctor, a German, who is constant in his 
attendance on the exiled couple. 

The ex- Kaiser's house and grounds are watched 
by Dutch soldiers. This is not because he is 
considered a prisoner, but merely because the 
authorities have undertaken to see that he is not 
unduly molested. The guard is strict. No one 
may present himself without a special written 
permission on which the name and many par- 
ticulars about the visitor are inscribed. A well- 
known Englishwoman who endeavoured to gain 
an entrance was stopped not so long ago.^ Many 
trippers in the summer months try to get a glimpse 
of the ex- Kaiser in the grounds, and hang about 
the roads when it is rumoured that he is outside. 

During all the spring of 1920 the roads between 
the German frontier and Doom groaned under 
^ Summer 1920. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 95 

the weight of enormous wagons laden with precious 
and beautiful things belonging to the Royal pair, 
and until then — wonderful to state — carefully 
guarded in their palaces for them. 

Pictures and statuary, tapestries, gold and 
silver plate, mirrors, porcelain and glass, were now 
to fill the hitherto unknown and unsung house in 
the wood. 

Some of their belongings in the way of clothing 
were missing after the Revolution. Certainly the 
ex- Kaiser's plight at first was in some degrees 
comparable to that of the late ex-Empress of the 
French when she fled to England by means of 
the late Sir John Burgoyne's yacht. It is said 
that she possessed nothing but what she wore and 
a little handbag. The ex-Kaiser had more, for he 
arrived in a special train ; but his wardrobe, with 
the exception of what he brought with him, was 
completely looted during the Revolution, so that 
nothing was available to forv/ard on to him in 
Holland. Even his pocket-handkerchiefs had 
been taken. 

Notwithstanding all these losses he is, however, 
still an exceedingly rich man. His wealth a few 
months before the War was estimated by the 
compiler of the Almanack of German Millionaires 
to be £19,700,000. This included the value of 
land and forest properties which were forfeited 
to the State during the Revolution, when a large 
portion of his personal belongings shared a like 
fate. Nevertheless, he still possesses a great for- 
tune, and there is a very considerable margin left 
over from his income, I imagine, after the wheels 
of his present household are comfortably oiled. 



96 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

It is noticeable that the money fortunes of 
modern fallen monarchs do not seem to share very 
fully the fate of the political fortunes. Even the 
ex-Empress Eugenie left at her death the other day ^ 
a fortune estimated at about £200,000. 

Days and nights at Doom are singularly lacking 
in glamour ; that is when there are no visitors. 
The exile's routine is much as it was at Amerongen 
— early rising, walking, wood-cutting, and motoring. 

He does not like to be long parted from his 
aide-de-camp, Captain von Ilsemann, upon whose 
buoyant personality he has grown more and 
more to rely ; so when the latter became engaged 
to Count Godard Bentinck's daughter, Countess 
Elizabeth, an arrangement was made by which he 
slept one night at Amerongen and the next at his 
own quarters at Doom ; which meant that he 
stayed with the ex-Kaiser all the evening and went 
to him early in the morning. On the mornings 
on which he breakfasted at Amerongen he set off 
on his bicycle in time to arrive at Doom soon after 
nine. 

The first occupation after breakfast is to read 
eight German daily newspapers, for the exile 
naturally takes a deep interest in the doings of the 
country from which he has been cut off. Some he 
reads himself, others are read aloud to him by the 
faithful Ilsemann — who, when the official, intimate 
life of the ex-Kaiser is written, will surely go down 
to posterity as another Bourrienne or Boswell 
(minus the volumes). 

Of the papers the Conservative Kreutz- 
Zeitung is a favourite. In the old days Professor 

1 Winter 1920. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 97 

Schiemann (lately deceased) was responsible for 
the spirit in which foreign affairs were treated in 
its columns, and the Kaiser, who put great trust 
in his judgment, always kept in touch with this 
paper. 

The others range in political outlook from 
Junker to Socialist. He makes an effort to swallow 
the unpalatable doses the latter offer ; but there 
are certain periodicals which he " cannot abide." 
One of these is Zukunft, run by the brilliant 
matador journalist. Harden, a vitriolic writer 
supposed not to entertain much feeling of affec- 
tion for the HohenzoUerns. When I mentioned 
Zukunft I was greeted with such epithets as " Ei ! " 
" Pfui ! " " Nein ! " in undisguised tones of dis- 
gust. It will be remembered that Harden was 
one of Prince Bismarck's closest friends after that 
statesman's fall, and probably knows more of the 
veteran's private views, and thus of the inner 
history of the late Empire, than any one in Germany 
to-day — a circumstance which might be discom- 
forting to the exile. 

Masses of letters have, of course, to be tackled. 
Those in which the writers expressed their detesta- 
tion of him in unrestrained terms and called down 
vengeance on his head are now infrequent ; not 
that the writers necessarily have changed tlien^ 
opinions, but probably because they have had 
their say. These letters, very numerous at first, 
used greatly to agitate the exile. " How can they 
believe it ? " he would exclaim, when he was 
strongly upbraided for having permitted atrocities. 
I think that the restless " walking up and pacing 
down " in the picture gallery at Amerongen during 
13 



98 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

the direful winter 1918-19 must have been partly 
undertaken to soothe his tormented mind. But 
I propose to deal more fully later with his attitude 
on this subject. 

Now among the family and business letters 
come some signed each with hundreds of names, 
and setting forth the loyalty of ardent monarchists 
in Germany. 

A particular and most faithful adherent is the 
old Field-Marshal Hindenburg. An idiosyncrasy 
of the veteran is to use large-sized foolscap sheets 
as notepaper. I have never seen such hand- 
writing 1 His nibs must be at least an inch thick, 
and each letter is about two inches in height ! 
Oceans of ink must be used. Being interested in 
the meanings of caligraphy, I particularly noticed 
that as the writing sprawled gigantically over the 
paper, the lines most markedly slanted upward. 
Apparently hope springs eternal in Hindenburg's 
fiery and monarchical breast ! 

The day of the year on which, naturally, the 
mass of letters is overwhelming, is that of his 
birthday anniversary (27th January), of which he 
has just celebrated the 62nd, as I write. ^ Then 
the ardent souls of the Fatherland pour out 
their torrent of good wishes. I notice that on 
this anniversary he received 336 letters and 
telegrams from Germany, and was presented with 
sixty-four baskets of flowers, the donors of which 
included the ex-Kings of Bavaria, Saxony, and 
Wiirtemberg. A notable fact in this connection 
is that a man with whom the Kaiser was on terms 
of personal friendship, and in whose home he 

^ February 1921. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 99 

often stayed in " le temps passe," has not written 
to him on any anniversarj'" since the debacle of 
1918. The exile shows that this silence hurts him. 

This is the third of his birthday anniversaries 
which he has spent as an exile, but the first since 
abdication in which he has been the host, and so 
able to choose his guests with greater freedom 
than he could when himself the guest of another. 
It was the fashion in the old days to celebrate it 
with great pomp, and I see there was a faint sug- 
gestion of old times in his donning uniform on this 
occasion. Birthday celebrations are features of 
the social life of the circles in which he now moves, 
and the ex-Kaiser is a zestful participant in the 
dinner-parties at Doom, Amerongen, and Zuy- 
lestein, which mark these occasions. A table is put 
aside for the display of gifts, and baskets of flowers 
usually make a great heap of colour on the floor. 
One of the Bentinck birthdays took place during 
my visit, and though I was not present when the 
ex-Kaiser came, I saw the presents he brought 
— a large single aquamarine set in platinum and 
a basket of azaleas tied with an enormous yellow 
satin bow. 

The newspapers and letters leave little time 
for book-reading. He is much interested in Ger- 
man books on the War and dealing with the science 
of the Various branches of armies. (I remember a 
German artillery officer, whom I met at the wedding 
at Amerongen, telling me that the ex-Kaiser ap- 
parently knew as much of the latest developments 
of artillery as a specialist in that arm.) But there 
is one kind of book into which he plunges with 
absorption : that dealing with Freemasonry. His 



100 THE EX-KJlISER IN EXILE 

brother. Prince Henry of Prussia, sends him every- 
thing that appears on the subject, and there is 
frequently a newly arrived pile to attack of a 
morning. When I stayed at Zuylestein in March 
1919 (while the ex-Kaiser was still at Amerongen), 
his ex-Majesty sent me some new German books 
and pamphlets dealing with this subject. He is 
convinced of its sinister power in world politics, 
and he attributes as much evil-doing to its 
secret machinations as did our eighteenth-century 
ancestors to the doings of the " lUuminati." 

In 1794, when all Europe was aflame, the 
calamities of those days were also imputed to 
the inner workings of secret societies. From the 
correspondence of the day we gather that the most 
dangerous of these was one called " Les Illumines," 
a society which claimed to receive direct from 
God, independently of the Church, a special light 
or revelation. 

Various bodies from earliest times have be- 
lieved themselves to be, in a transport of fervour, 
the recipients of special manifestations; but the 
" Illumines " of the eighteenth century were 
opposed to all religion and believed only in the 
light of reason. Later, some of them amalgamated 
with the Freemasons I will now quote, if I may, 
once more from the Memoirs of Countess Bentinck.* 

On 30th September 1794 she writes : 

" These hot-headed people (the ' Illumines '), 
attracted by the riches of the Jesuits while all the 
time pretending to be good Freemasons, managed 

* Charlotte Sophie, Countess Bentinck : Her Life and Times, 
17 1 5-1800, by Mrs. Aubrey le Blond. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 101 

to get hold of the Duke of Orleans, whose con- 
temptible character was just what they wanted 
coupled with his rank of Prince of the Blood, 
and made him a Freemason, together with certain 
other nobles of the same sort. Through them 
were brought about all the horrors we have 
witnessed and the French Revolution. But even 
this was not enough to satisfy them, for they 
aimed at overturning not only France but the 
whole of Europe 1 . . . Then they had to rouse 
to enthusiasm the colder blood of the Northern 
nations for the idea of equality and liberty ; em- 
bitter them, tickle their desire for novelty ; make 
them discontented. 

"They saw that most nations only occupied 
themselves with matters of domestic and pecuniary 
interest, and seldom read or noticed what went on 
elsewhere. These had to be enlightened. . . ." 

And so it goes on, and we could believe we were 
reading a letter of 1921 instead of one written in 
1794! 

Yet, on the other hand, we read what Lord 
Moira (Francis Rawdon Hastings, first Marquis of 
Hastings and second Earl of Moira, 1754-1826) said 
on the same subject at the same time. 

The following words of his were written in 
1800 : 

" Certain modern publications have been hold- 
ing forth to the world the society of Masons as 
a league against constitutional authorities — an im- 
putation the more secure because the known 
constitutions of our fellowship make it certain 
that no answer can be published. It is not to be 
disputed that in countries where impolitic pro- 
hibitions restrict the communication of sentiment. 



102 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

the activity of the human mind may, among 
other means of baffling the control, have resorted 
to the artifice of borrowing the denomination of 
Freemasons, to cover meetings for seditious 
purposes, just as any other description might be 
assumed for the same object. But, in the first 
place, it is the invaluable distinction of this free 
country that such a just intercourse of opinions 
exists without restraint as cannot leave to any 
number of men the desire of forming or frequent- 
ing those disguised societies where dangerous dis- 
positions may be imbibed. And, secondly, the 
profligate doctrines which may have been nurtured 
in any such self-established assemblies could never 
have been tolerated for a moment in any lodge 
meeting under regular authority. We aver, there- 
fore, that not only such laxity of opinion has no 
sort of connection with the tenets of Masonry, 
but is diametrically opposite to the injunction 
which we regard as the foundation-stone of the 
lodge, namely, Fear God and honour the King." 

I was interested in the view on the subject 
of this well-known English soldier for a personal 
reason also ; as a very fine full-length portrait 
of him in uniform hangs in the hall of my old 
home at Exton. 

So here we have two exactly opposed views 
written almost simultaneously by two well-known 
people of the world. One must bear in mind, 
however, that English and Continental Freemasonry 
are very differently constituted. 

" Plus ga change, plus c'est la meme chose." 
(" The more things change, the more they remain 
the same.") 

When the Emperor went to Amerongen one 
of the first things he asked Count Godard was 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 103 

whether he was a Freemason, and was pleased when 
the answer was in the negative. He told Count 
Godard that when he went to England as quite a 
young man, Queen Victoria had advised him not 
to join that Society, meaning, of course, the con- 
tinental variety — ^the political institution which is 
definitely anti-clerical and anti-religious, and plays 
a very great part in many European countries, 
particularly Italy and France. Unlike the English 
kind, it has determinately banished the Deity from 
its teaching. His repeatedly expressed belief is 
that there are only two organisations, apart from 
Governments, which have any real power in the 
world to-day — those of Roman Catholicism and 
Freemasonry. So great are they and so deeply 
do they work into the minds and lives of their 
adherents that no one can foretell the end or what 
they will achieve. One of them must, he thinks, 
fall through the power of the other. 

It is only fair to say, in passing, that he was 
broadminded in his dealings with the different 
religious bodies of his country. Germany was a 
Protestant Power, but it will be remembered that 
the fact that he was a Roman Catholic did not 
prevent Count Hertling, "der alte Fuchs" ("the 
old Fox"), as the Bavarians called him, from 
becoming Imperial Chancellor. Of course there is 
an extremely large, rich, and powerful Roman 
Catholic section in Germany which includes many 
royalties, a large portion of the aristocracy, and 
an enormous number of the middle and lower 
classes and peasants. 

It will also be remembered that Winthorst, 
the great leader of the " Centre," was a Catholic 



104 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

and Bismarck's most formidable opponent in his 
" Cultur Kampf^ against clericalism. 

How near the mark, one wonders, was Shelley 
in his poetical epitome of War ! 

" War is the statesman's game. 
The priest's delight. 
The lawyer's jest." 

Fairly though different religions were treated 
under the Empire, the famous decree " Ne 
Temere " regarding marriage laws was never 
promulgated in Germany, and, far as she went 
in many cases to meet Rome, this papal decree 
apparently was the limit over which she wouldn't 
step. 

Bismarck had once said, "Nach Canassa 
gehen wir nicht " (" To Canossa we will not 
go "), referring to the time when Pope Gregory 
VII. (Hildebrand) literally placed his foot upon 
the neck of the then " Romische Kaiser," Henry 
IV., which episode is portrayed in mosaic in the 
porch of St. Mark's in Venice. For three days 
the great Emperor was made to walk barefooted 
through the streets of Canossa. By this phrase 
the Iron Chancellor left no doubt as to his meaning ! 
This humiliating episode occurred in 1077. 

Nearly nine hundred years later, in 1903, 
William ii. paid a visit to Leo xiii., no longer an 
autocrat like Gregory, but a prisoner, albeit a 
powerful one. The magnificence of this visit 
contrasted strikingly with the quiet unobtrusive- 
ness of King Edward's ^ a little earlier. 

Berlin was now to be on the most friendly 

* Edward vii. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 105 

terms with the Vatican. Many views as to the 
ultimate object of this rapprochement were held by 
different cliques and sections of thought. Some 
saw in it a slight to United Italy, others a bid 
for the Protectorate of the Eastern Christians in 
anticipation of the defection of France. 

Another series of conjectures ascribed the 
eclat given to the visit to the Pope to the desire 
to gain the support of the German Catholic party 
in <iomestic politics. But Count von Biilow had 
met with a refusal from Cardinal RampoUa when 
he proposed that the Eastern Christian Pro- 
tectorate should be given to Germany, and this 
was very pleasing to the Russians, whose paper, 
the Novoe Vremya, described it as "a very severe 
blow to German influence in Syria, where numerous 
communities of Catholic Germans are alreadj^ 
formed." 

However, the German Government missions 
in China have been gradually transferred from 
French to German protection since the action in 
1899 of Mgr Amzer in requesting and obtaining 
permission to found a mission which should not 
be under French Protectorate. An arresting point 
in contemporary history is the increasing defer- 
ence shown to the Papacy by Protestant Powers 
in contrast to the neglect or even hostility of 
nominally Catholic nations. 

The key to this friendly attitude may perhaps 
be found in the mental reservation contained in 
Bismarck's historic phrase. 

M. Jean Correre, a journalist with a reputation 
for being in touch with the Vatican, detected in 
the Emperor's visit an attempt to influence the 
14 



106 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

future conclave favourably for German interests, 
and it was said that the Emperor worked on 
behalf of Cardinal Gotti, Prefect of Propaganda, 
as a candidate for the Papacy, hoping thus to 
secure a political Pope chiefly solicitous for the 
diplomatic power of the Holy See, and anxious to 
substitute for the lost temporal power a temporal 
influence which he would place at the disposal of 
Germany. 

As the Hapsburgs had been known to place 
their nominee in Peter's chair, perhaps the fertile 
and scheming brain of William ii. imagined that a 
Hohenzollern might be able to do likewise. That 
there was German influence present in the Vatican 
in the person of Mgr Gerlach is certain, and on 
very high authority it is said that this priest 
had the Pope " in his hand." 

In this connection it is interesting to read in 
the Letters of William /, to Bismarck that in 1876 
Bismarck, in a letter to the Crown Prince Frederick, 
mentions a President von Gerlach as a Protestant 
belonging to the Evangelical Church who, however, 
associates himself with the " Centre " (Catholic) 
party and the Jesuits, therefore Bismarck seems to 
think he and his friends are not to be trusted. 

It was on the occasion of this historic visit, 
if my memory does not mislead me, that as the 
Emperor drove through the streets of Rome in 
splendour, escorted by blond giants of cuirassiers, 
specially chosen for length of limb and breadth of 
shoulder (he shares the liking of his predecessor, 
Frederick the Great's father, for very tall men), 
he was now and again greeted with the flattering 
cry of " Charlemagne ! " It was with the acclama- 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 107 

tions of hundreds of German pilgrims and the 
whole of the red-gowned students of the German 
Ecclesiastical College ringing in his ears that the 
Protestant monarch passed into the silent, cool 
courts of the Vatican, and for twenty-five minutes 
remained in conversation with the man who, to 
the minds of hundreds of millions of human beings, 
represents God on earth in all matters pertaining 
to faith and morals. How strange and mixed 
and tragic must the memories of the exile be ! 

In view of the much-discussed subject of papal 
neutrality during the War, I asked at Amerongen 
what the German impression was about the 
delicate subject. Captain von Ilsemann told me 
that in Germany Benedict xiv. was looked upon 
as being pro-English. I hold no brief for the 
Papacy, but I thought this was a tribute to its 
neutrality. It is not for me to say that he was 
neutral or otherwise, but, humanly speaking, it 
should not have been surprising did he tend more 
towards the Central Powers, consisting as they did 
of Catholic Austria and Germany, who, notwith- 
standing her Lutheranism, had done more politically 
to conciliate the Papacy than any other modern 
Protestant nation. One of her most important 
acts in this connection is the presence of an Embassy 
to the Vatican as well as to the Quirinal. 

Zionism is another question which greatly 
perturbs the ex-Kaiser, and one of the books which 
every one had been reading when I was in Holland 
last summer ^ was the anti-Semite The Protocols 
of the Elders of Zion. The machinations which the 
curious pamphlet purports to disclose were firmly 

* 1920. 



108 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE • 

believed to have been among the causes which 
led to the World War and later to the rise of Bol- 
shevism in Russia. The ex- Kaiser shared some 
of the prejudice in military and diplomatic circles 
against Jews, but he did not allow it to interfere 
with his recognition of the part played in raising 
the country to the pinnacle of commercial success 
before 1914 by such of them as Ballin, the great 
shipowner ; Rathenau, the electrician and financier ; 
and Dernburg, managing director of the Deutsche 
Bank before becoming Colonial Secretary. There 
also are not lacking in Germany brilliant Jews 
in other fields of activity who have added to the 
arts and learning of their adopted country, such 
as Hauptmann, the poet -playwright ; Liebermann, 
the painter ; Ehrlich, the heroic fighter of disease ; 
and Rheinhardt, the stage wizard. 

It is, however, hurtful to some of the most 
esteemed Jews that the ex-Kaiser should hold 
this view regarding members of their faith and 
nation, and a little book has come to my notice 
called the Jewish Bogey and the Forged Protocols 
of the Learned Elders of Zion, by Lucien Wolf, 
which utterly repudiates all the political misdoings 
imputed to the Jews in the aforesaid pamphlet. 
It is well worth reading, if only for the reason that 
one should be acquainted with both sides before 
making a judgment. 

A man who is constantly referred to as being a 
Jew is Hugo Stinnes, one of the most important 
men in Germany to-day. But in the Reichstag 
Handbook his religion is described as Evangelical. 
His wealth is colossal, and I imagine that he is far 
more powerful than the ex-Kaiser ever was. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 109 

He controls the greater part of Germany's 
coal, iron, and steel supply, and is suspected of 
having wrecked the Spa negotiations in order to 
secure the occupation of the Ruhr Valley and 
thus realise a Franco-German coal combine. 

Over and above this he owns over sixty news- 
papers, and, unlike Lord Northcliffe, whose paper 
supply comes from forests in Newfoundland, Hugo 
Stinnes owns miles of woods in Germany for that 
purpose. His influence on German public opinion 
is growing apace, and he is the leader of the 
German People's Party, which is anti-socialistic, 
reactionary, and royalist, and so it would seem 
that Monarchists would have a very strong backer 
in this prince of industry. 

Incidentally, one may perhaps say that the 
brains of the Fatherland to-day are more successful 
in commerce than in politics. I well remember 
the admission a German of wide experience in 
the world made to me when I met him in visiting, 
in the autumn of 1913, the home of the late 
Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, who had died 
that summer, and considered by far and away 
Germany's greatest diplomat. " We cannot pro- 
duce really great diplomats," he said. " Perhaps 
we are too rough in our ways. We cannot 
' finesse ' as other Europeans can." 

Of all the tales circulated about the ex-Kaiser's 
versatility — as painter and composer, for instance 
—that crediting him with an aptitude for preach- 
ing has the greatest semblance of truth. It was 
natural that he should be keenly interested in 
religious questions, both on account of his need 
as ruler to reconcile the conflicting political aims 



110 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

of the churches in Germany and on account of the 
conviction which his upbringing and earher en- 
vironment firmly estabHshed in his mind that he 
was in a special sense a representative of God on 
earth. It is not surprising now that in the 
wreckage of his glory he clings to the consolations 
of religion. 

At Doom, as at Amerongen, morning prayers 
are part of the daily round, but here they are 
conducted by the exile. On Sundays a special 
service takes place, at which he very often preaches 
himself. I am told he has quite a gift for this 
form of self-expression — a gift that may be 
dangerous to the soul, as tending to make a man 
vain if he is not surpassingly humble — and that 
what he says is interesting and thoughtful and is 
delivered in an impressive and gripping manner. 
There is no straying from the orthodox path ; a 
matter of some consequence, since many of the 
servants who attend these services are Dutch, 
and a wave of unconventional religious thought 
is at present passing over Holland, based chiefly 
on the assumption that our Saviour Jesus Christ 
was not the Son of God. 

His orthodoxy is, indeed, vouched for by a 
Utrecht minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, 
whose doctrines in the main are similar to those 
of the Lutheran Church to which the exile is 
attached. This minister is a small and rather 
bent old man, with patriarchal white locks and 
long, snowy beard. In his capacity of " old 
friend " of the Bentinck family he is sometimes 
rather critical of the doings and sayings and 
apparel of the younger generation, but notwith- 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 111 

standing this — not very unusual — characteristic 
he is always welcome and constantly a visitor at 
Amerongen and Doom. 

I noticed that he spoke long and often to the 
exile on the day of the wedding reception I 
attended at Amerongen ; indeed, some of the 
guests were obviously a little surprised at the 
attention which the latter paid to him. He is 
apparently never so happy as when discussing 
theology of the Calvinistic type with the recluse. 

One can imagine what texts for reflection and 
discourse they found in the mutability of human 
fortunes, the vanity of earthly power, and the 
lessons of adversity. 



CHAPTER VII 

" Yet looks he like a king." — King Richard ii. 

During the winter of 1919-20 Countess Elizabeth 
Bentinck had become engaged to Captain Sigurd 
von Ilsemann, and their wedding was fixed to 
take place on 7th October 1920. The day dawned 
one of brilliant hot sunshine — ^the right back- 
ground for a marriage day. 

The bride, who is extremely popular in the 
village, had been asked not to enter it for a week 
previous to the great day, and so she was happily 
astonished to see into what a fairyland of greenery 
the people had transformed the place. Three 
miles of green festoons had been made to decorate 
the streets, and here and there on the way to the 
church had been erected with boughs charming 
little imitation castellated houses. The villagers 
had spared themselves no trouble to make this 
indeed the bride's own particular day. 

The ex-Kaiser was greatly looking forward 
to the outing also, and it was the first gaiety of 
this sort that he had had since the revolution. 
As no one ever knows exactly when he will 
arrive, the wedding guests had been waiting for 
about half an hour in the long rectangular drawing- 
room at Amerongen. It was about eleven o'clock. 
Conversation went- on easily though in subdued 
tones, but nobody moved about, and the array — 

112 



THE EX KAISER IN EXILE 113 

women to the left, men to the right, in a wide 
half-circle facing the door on the inner wall — was 
ceremonious. 

Suddenly, without any preliminary warning, 
two tall attendants, in long blue coats and tricorne 
hats and with silver - topped staves, flung open 
the big double door and announced : 

" Der Kaiser ! " 

The hum of conversation ceased abruptly. A 
slight, stiffly erect figure in the uniform of a 
German field-marshal took two short, quick steps 
into the room, halted near the door with a smart 
click of the heels, gave a rapid succession of slight, 
jerky bows to right and left, and then, in the 
silent pause of a few minutes that ensued, looked 
restlessly and uncertainly round the company. 
He held a helmet tucked against his right side 
by his right arm, and his left hand pushed forward 
slightly the hilt of a sword that had clattered as 
he entered. 

I have described the ex-Kaiser's entry in this 
way, because, by chance, it was made in a dramatic 
fashion, and the effect was heightened rather than 
lessened by his nervousness. 

There was a slight pause, and for a few seconds 
before Count Godard came forward to greet him 
he stood (as he had so often before, but on how 
much wider a stage) a solitary figure, to which all 
eyes were turned. 

This was the first opportunity I had for close 
observation of him. I had many more that day. 
And I may begin by saying that the reports that 
represent him as a mental or physical wreck are 
entirely misleading ; they probably have been 
IS 



114 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

based on the fact that his appearance now is 
markedly different from that of pre-war days. 

He did not look his best at the moment I am 
describing. He was obviously in an extreme state 
of tension, being conscious that there were people 
there, both Dutch and English, who would not 
have cared to meet him had it not been for their 
relationship to the bride. 

It was a grey man we gazed upon— grey of 
dress, of face, of hair, and steely of eye ; though, 
perhaps, putty-colour would more accurately de- 
scribe the hue of his complexion. The short, soft 
beard had no streaks of black in it ; the moustache, 
long and drooping at the ends, was a shade whiter ; 
the eyebrows (rather an unusual effect) were grey ; 
the hair, thick and wavy, but with no trace of 
dark strands, was brushed back from his brow, 
not exactly en brosse in continental fashion or 
flat in the EngHsh, but with an unruly tuft standing 
up near the front. 

There was no sign of the old '* Kaiser Fire " 
in his eyes or of the verve and " aplomb " — ^the 
" ME's here " ^ — of pre-war days. Everything sym- 
bolised by the moustache, so gaily and proudly 
pointing upward, had gone, and this changes 
the face so much as to make him look almost a 
different man. The life, the enthusiasm, the 
buoyancy of the pre-war Emperor is no longer 
there, and in its place one sees a quiet, bearded old 
gentleman. Not bent nor weak nor decrepit, as 
some of the reports would have us believe. No. 
He stands perfectly erect, and is a most noticeable 
figure. Curiously enough, he had a hard look, but 

^ See Autobiography, Margot Asquith. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 115 

that was because he has scarcely any eyelashes, 
and, though his eyes are not prominent, there is 
not a sufficiently deep depression from the high 
cheek bones to give a soft contour. His hair was 
neither clipped short in military fashion nor 
noticeably long ; one saw that he had small ears. 
He did not strike me as what one calls " a fine- 
looking man " ; he was rather short for that. 

This was the first occasion on which he had 
appeared in uniform since his abdication. On his 
breast were about a dozen orders. 

After Count Godard had welcomed the visitor 
(the ex-Kaiser is always addressed as " Majestat " 
— " Your Majesty " — ^and he prefers the word 
" Emperor " to " Kaiser "), a tour was made of 
the half-circle, and the guests were presented one 
by one. Each made a bow, low in some cases, 
slight in others, and his friends received a warm 
handshake accompanied by a click of the heels. 

With those whom he had already met the 
ex-Kaiser exchanged a few amiable sentences, and 
with a few ladies, relations of the bride, he had 
quite long conversations. I noticed that his eyes 
did not rest on the one to whom he was speaking. 
His glance was always darting here and there. 

The formalities of introduction over, the half- 
circle broke up into little shifting groups for 
conversation. The guests wore ordinary light 
garden-party dress, for the day was mild, even 
summery ; the younger men were in morning 
dress, many of the older in frock-coats. There 
was no constraint, but the tones were a little 
subdued, in deference to the ex-Kaiser's well-known 
dislike of loud-voiced talk. The ex-Kaiser himself 



116 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

stood quietly chatting with his host and men of 
the family with whom he was acquainted, and 
who came up from time to time. He gesticulated 
a little, but the impression was of a quiet, elderly 
man, friendly and genial in manner, and without 
any pose ; for by now the ice was broken, and he 
was quite at ease. 

As I said before, he was looking forward with 
an almost juvenile zest to this " outing," and 
the scene, bright with flags and flowers, and 
lively with the villagers en fete, was an animating 
experience that he had not enjoyed for long. And 
what gave him particular pleasure was the fact 
that the daughter of the Count, the young hostess 
of many months of whom he had grown very fond, 
was being married to his trusted adjutant and in- 
separable follower. Captain von Ilsemann. 

The bride is very Dutch in all her sympathies, 
proud of the country in which her ancestors have 
struck such deep root for centuries past. She 
had lived a very quiet, retired life, and the change 
for her when the Kaiser first arrived was immense. 
She was the only lady in the Castle, and her shy 
grace and sweetness had given her great charm as 
a hostess to an exile deeply wounded in spirit when 
first he came. His affection for her had grown 
to be almost paternal. 

We had all been talking for about a quarter of 
an hour when the bride and Captain von Ilsemann 
entered. The ex-Kaiser advanced impulsively to 
meet her, as she made a deep curtsy, and shook her 
hand long and warmly, smiling and talking eagerly. 
His handshaking, I may say, is of the most cordial 
kind when it is a friend he greets. He brings his 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 117 

hand forward with a wide, swift, sweeping gesture, 
as if his heart were in it. There are occasions, it 
is true, when he tenders two cold fingers ; but that 
is another story. 

From the time of the bride's entry until the 
preparations for the civil marriage ceremony, 
which were meantime going on in another room, 
were completed, he remained chatting to the bride, 
apparently happy and as simple in manner as 
any elderly, long-standing friend of the family 
might be. Then the signal was given that all was 
ready, and nearly the whole of the company left 
the room, the ex-Kaiser among them, for he was 
to sign the register as a witness. I was one of the 
few who remained behind, and so cannot say 
anything about the ceremony, excepting that it 
seemed long, about half an hour altogether, I 
think. 

The bride and bridegroom were the first to 
return to the drawing-room. Then, a few minutes 
later, came the ex-Kaiser, his host, and a niece ; 
and what appeared to me a pretty incident took 
place. The bride, perhaps thinking of the change 
in her position her marriage to the exile's adjutant 
had made, began to make a real royal curtsy. 
At once the ex-Kaiser hastened forward, and with 
extended arm stopped her. " Nein, nein, nein ! " 
he exclaimed, smiling to her in friendly reproof. 

Everything was informal at this stage, con- 
gratulations to the newly wed couple being post- 
poned until after the ceremony in church. People 
moved about chatting until Count Godard Ben- 
tinck approached the ex-Kaiser and said something 
to him, and together they went to another room. 



118 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

It was time to go to the village church — Dutch 
Reformed — where a minister from Utrecht, the 
friend of the Bentinck family to whom I just 
referred, officiated. 

I pass over the ceremony at the church, as the 
ex-Kaiser was not present. The weather being 
fine, the guests being conveyed in open horsed 
carriages, and the villagers loudly cheering a bride 
who had passed her life among them, the drive to 
and from the Castle was extremely pleasant and 
picturesque. Outside the church, on our way 
back, the whole party was kinematographed. 

On the top of the steps of the bridge over the 
inner moat — ^the Castle is enclosed by two — ^the 
ex-Kaiser stood awaiting the return of the bride. 
She and her husband were in the first carriage ; 
I was in, I think, the fourth, and so I did not see 
the greeting. I was told it was most paternal, 
and I could readily picture it from what I had 
seen of the long conversation in the drawing-room 
and the spontaneous movement by which he had 
checked her attempt to curtsy. 

When I reached the drawing-room he was 
standing alone in a far corner, while the bride 
and bridegroom at the head of the room were 
beginning to receive the formal — and very hearty 
— congratulations of the guests. This was the 
bride's hour, and he kept unobtrusively out of the 
way, only following everything with his eyes, until 
the procession of guests had ended. It is only 
fair to say, indeed, that his attitude the whole of 
the day, apart from the moment of his abrupt entry, 
was as unobtrusive and far from posing as possible. 

It was perhaps twenty minutes before luncheon 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 119 

was announced. By that time the ex-Kaiser, 
still in his corner, was chatting with some of the 
men, one of the small groups away from the big 
one surrounding the bride. He led the way from 
the drawing-room with a niece of the host and 
mother of one of the little bridesmaids — there was 
no " best man " at the marriage ceremony, and 
only child bridesmaids. 

Luncheon was served in the large picture- 
gallery encircling the main staircase, notable for 
its collection of paintings of the Dutch school and 
its many objets d^art. At the head of the main 
table sat the ex-Kaiser next to the bride ; there 
were about six tables disposed round the gallery. 

It was a quiet function. The meal was slight 
but of extreme excellence — everything being cold 
except the consommS, four courses being served in 
an hour, with a servant to each two guests. The 
ex-Kaiser, who ate sparingly and sipped hock, had 
long lost any trace of his initial nervousness, and 
seemed in excellent spirits as he turned from one 
to the other of his companions. 

On the wall to his left was a life-size marble 
bust of himself which he had presented to his 
host. One's eyes strayed from it to him ; and 
one thought of then and now. It was, I believe, 
sculptured at the beginning of the War. Here was 
the War Lord, dominating, self-confident, moody, 
changeable, tragic ; helmeted, with the folds of a 
military cloak falling loosely round his shoulders, 
the outstretched right hand grasping a sceptre. 
Who, looking from the marble to the man, would 
not reflect on his strange destiny ? But, apart 
from such reflections, one was afforded a most 



120 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

instructive comparison in personal appearance. One 
saw that it was his grey beard and the long, 
drooping moustache that had the biggest part in 
the change from truculence in its prime to an 
elderly benignity. 

Among the toasts proposed was one to the 
leading guest. It was briefly put by the host and 
quietly responded to. Standing up, he said 
quietly in German (he could not be heard a little 
distance away), " I thank you very much. I am 
glad to be here on the happy day of your dear 
child's wedding." 

Luncheon over, most of us went out of doors, 
the ex-Kaiser leading the way. While half of us 
lingered on the bridge over the inner moat, he 
went down into the courtyard and stood most of 
the time a little way to the left of the steps and 
half hidden by a large pillar, chatting with various 
members of the family. 

From his long stay at the Castle he was well 
versed in all the concerns and the little idiosyncrasies 
of the household and its retainers ; and, naturally, 
on that day family gossip took first place. Thus 
there was some merriment ; but there was no 
throwing back the head and hearty laughing as I 
have been told there was in the old days. 

To persons trained in and for Courts a good 
memory and a sharp eye for small things as well 
as large are, if not indispensable, at least highly 
desirable qualifications. Royalty, for instance, is 
supposed never to forget a face or a name ; or, at 
least, if it does so, never to betray the fact. Such 
gifts and accomplishments are the ex-Kaiser's in 
abundance. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 121 

Little escapes him at any assembly. His pale, 
vigilant, side-glancing eyes take in every detail of 
looks, dress, manner, and equipment. And that 
is particularly the case if he has the fortune — 
which does not happen very often nowadays I — 
to see pretty, well-dressed people. 

Everything is noticed then — ^the colour and 
make of a gown ; whether it is too long or too 
short, and how it is worn ; whether or not ankles 
are neat and feet are well shod ; what jewels are 
worn, and how they match the owner's garments 
and the colour of her eyes. And, after a party 
is over, he will speak critically or admiringly of the 
looks or the clothing of the guests. 

I had ample leisure at the wedding reception 
at Amerongen, of which I have already spoken, 
to observe this trait in the exile's character. The 
dresses there were less decorative and more old- 
fashioned than they would have been at a similar 
gathering in England. 

Until lately it was the custom of French people 
to twit the English with having clumsy feet or 
ankles ; they held all the gold medals, so to speak. 
Recently we have improved in this respect ; one 
sees plenty of pretty, slender feet and ankles 
neatly and narrowly shod and smartly stockinged 
in silk. But the Germans and Dutch are in the 
position we were accused of occupying. The men 
themselves complain of the comparative rarity 
of the slim and elegant English or American type 
among their womenfolk. Two or three of the 
guests, however, by the shortness of their skirts 
(in comparison with those of others — for they 
would have been deemed on the long side in 

A l6 



122 THE EX-I^ISER IN EXILE 

England) showed trim ankles, and the ex-Kaiser 
commented on the fact. There were others who 
he thought would have been better advised not 
to comply with the exigencies of a fashion requiring 
a shortening of the skirts 1 The wearing of silk 
stockings is not so general as in England, and the 
old pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church, who was 
at the reception, was loud in his condemnation of 
such " useless frivolities " 1 

I write in no critical spirit ; I merely compare 
this gathering to one of the same kind in England. 
But even "comparisons," says Shakespeare, "are 
odorous 1 " 

Courtly manners are still de rigueur there, and 
when met are much appreciated if only for the 
fact that they are becoming noticeably rare in 
England — except, of course, in a certain circle 
where no one would be tolerated whose behaviour 
did not conform to certain standards. The charm 
created by such manners is an elusive thing, but 
though the parfum it exhales is delicate and 
difficult to describe it always makes its presence 
felt. 

The ex-Kaiser likes his own womenfolk to be 
simply and quietly attired — ^the unnoticeable in 
blue or grey or dark stuff, with little ornamenta- 
tion. Nowadays he sees little else than the simple 
and old-fashioned. He is not much in the open 
beyond his own grounds, and if he were, there 
would be few diversities of attire to catch his eye. 

The vogue for wearing slightly outre clothes 
has not yet widely spread in Holland, nor, I 
imagine, in Germany, and there one sees no smart, 
peculiarly striped tweed skirts, no gay silk jumpers. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 123 

no tight-fitting caps drawn closely round the face 
and allowing the escape of tantalising curls, no 
" saucy " woollen stockings nor well-made Scotch 
brogues or shooting shoes. Oh no ! But should 
a person appear thus garbed, it would cause much 
amused comment on, though withal a lurking 
disapproval of, " your extraordinary J^nglish 
fashions." 

But he, as any other man who frowns on the 
adventurous in the dress of his own people may 
be, is susceptible to the appeal of the exotic in 
others. Perhaps, too, a vivid or elegant gown 
recalls Court days, when, however stiff and formal 
the general tone might be, there were always some 
beautiful women to give freshness and life to the 
assemblies. The ex-Crown Princess, quick-witted 
and charming, was, it will be remembered, doing 
much to remove the reproach of dowdiness that 
clung to the dress reputation of German women. 

Generally, however, it was, and is, only at a 
distance that the ex-Kaiser finds unconventionality 
amusing, however often he may express a liking 
for it in the abstract. Rigid conformity to 
historical procedure was practised at his Court, 
and would be again, I am sure, if he were back in 
Berlin. 

As I visited this town only as a tourist I was 
not present at any Court ceremonies, but these, 
though no doubt stiffer and less elegant, could not 
outdo those of Vienna in scrupulous observance of 
traditional custom. Here were given two kinds of 
State Balls : one was called a " Hof Bal," at which, 
I believe, there was a large crowd, and for which 
it wasn't very difficult to obtain an invitation ; the 



124 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

other was called the " Bal-bei-Hof," and this was, 
I imagine, the most exclusive assemblage of its 
kind in Europe. I was invited to this Ball when I 
was staying with a friend in Vienna in February 
1910, and was much struck by its remarkable 
adherence to tradition, which almost amounted 
to ritual, so exactly did the ceremony follow a 
prescribed rule. From the days of Maria Theresa, 
incidentally the last of the Hapsburgs, no deviation 
of any sort in the way of form had taken place — 
the same " menu," from the identical recipes, being 
used on the night I dined off a three hundred years 
old oak table and drank the finest iced Pilsener out 
of heavy, chalice-shaped glasses as had been the 
case during the reign of that great Empress. 
Champagne was never brought in at these feasts ; 
it was much too modern an innovation I 

It will be noticed from the invitation card, 
of which I give a reproduction, that an amusing 
mistake was made in the writing of my name ! 

On entering the ballroom, the walls of which 
were mirrored, the Lord Chamberlain, Prince 
Montenuovo, approached me, and I was asked to 
come and be presented to the Archduchess, who 
was doing hostess that night for the old Emperor 
Franz-Joseph. 

All the other guests — perhaps two hundred — 
were standing along one side of the large room, and 
I, to my horror, found myself following this exceed- 
ingly tall and magnificent-looking personage across 
the centre of the room — alone. A few minutes later 
a door opposite opened, and from another glittering 
room of gold and mirrors and scintillating chande- 
liers the Royal procession advanced towards me. 



//////' 



J- /f'/?€e a// J/J a //re -M- u/ rM///l 

INVITATION TO THE BAL-BEI-HOF IN VIENNA 
(Showing the mistake made in the writing of my name). 






I'" Walzer 

V Quadrille 

2'" Walzer 

Laocier 

Cotillon 

SOUPER (7,12 Uhr) 

3'" Walzer 
2'" Quadrille 

^i.r Walzer 
Sclinellpolka 



Programme of the Dancing 
at the Bal-bei-Hof. 






/'Y 



Souper du 7 Fevrier 1910. 

Bouillon. — Creme d'orge. 
Dick a la geMe. 
Zephyr St. Hubert. 
Chajjon.s rotis, .salade, compote. 
Charlotte, aux p&cbes. 
Dessert. 



Menu of the Supper 

At the Bal-bei-Hof in Vienna 

at which I was present. 

It is identical with that used during the reign of 
Maria-Theresa, the last of the Hapsburgs (1717- 
1780). Her father (Charles VI) it was who 
conferred a Countship on the Hon. William 
Bentinck on December 24th, 1732. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 125 

The late Archduke Franz Ferdinand was there 
with his wife, Countess Hohenberg. She took no 
part whatever in the official part of the proceed- 
ings, all the presentations being made to an Arch- 
duchess who was, I believe, a Princess of Parma. 
I was immensely struck on this occasion by her 
unpleasantly ambiguous position, and it is always 
said that it was through the influence of the 
German Emperor at the Court of Vienna that she 
was given any consideration at all in public social 
functions. I mention this little episode and give 
the menu and the invitation which bade me to 
the Ball as an interesting memory of days which 
are no more. 

As in dress, so in general outlook, the ex-Kaiser 
prefers the " old-fashioned " type of woman, the 
German " frau," to whom " Mein Mann " is the 
cherished embodiment of wisdom and authority. 
He likes the self-effacing woman, the one as 
observant of the changes in the mind as is the 
fisherman of the water's surface when the winds 
blow lightly across it, who hangs on his words 
admiringly, whose desire is submissively to comfort 
a man who is to-day indeed a wounded exile but is 
still potentially a towering figure. 

He likes the kind whose voice is hushed and 
sympathetic in his presence, and to whom " the 
Emperor likes this " or " he doesn't like that " 
is sufficient to influence deportment. Their eager- 
ness for his welfare, indignation at the world's 
treatment of him, and, above all, a listening 
attitude and a rapt reception of his monologues 
are the passports to his favour. 

Not that women play much part in the life 



126 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

at Doom — and less than ever since the late 
Empress's death. It is men who gather round 
him and in whose company he is most at home. 

Even among them, as among women, his 
vanity makes him sensitive to any suggestion of 
absence of regard, even so slight as is implied by 
lack of eagerness to court his gaze. A man whom 
he saw sometimes in Berlin never obtruded himself 
on his notice, and when at " Kaiserliche " receptions 
remained outside the circle that buzzed round 
the Imperial magnet. It annoyed the Kaiser that 
this person did not seek to be near him ; but if 
the man had pushed himself forward he would more 
than likely have incurred the Royal displeasure. 
He is generally inclined, however, to be friendly 
and genial with people whose social position is in 
no way comparable with his. 

No one needs to be reminded of the difference 
in the attitude of the English or Americans and 
the Germans to women, but I may perhaps note 
two little illustrations which came under my eyes. 
One was at Dresden, when driving to some military 
manoeuvres in which the Emperor rode in front of , 
his glittering " Garde du Corps." A carriage 
passed us, and in it sat two smartly dressed 
officers and a lady. The officers sat facing the 
horse, the lady with her back to the animal. The 
other was in Thuringia, where we had been to 
visit the house where Luther is supposed to have 
thrown the ink-pot at the Devil. Here I saw a 
man driving a woman and an ox yoked to a 
plough. 

The ex-Kaiser particularly resents that people 
should impute to him discourteous behaviour. In 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 127 

the early days of the War he stayed for a time 
in a chateau belonging to a lady who had fled 
at a moment's notice, leaving all her personal 
belongings lying about — buckled shoes under the 
dressing-table, stockings hanging out of open 
drawers, and the clothing she had just exchanged 
for her travelling garb carelessly thrown on to 
the bed. 

When the Royal suite arrived the first thing 
the ex-Emperor did was to have long lists of all the 
lady's possessions made, and then he had them all 
put away into certain apartments which he ordered 
to be locked. The key and the lists of her belong- 
ings he then had sent to her in Brussels, whither 
she had fled. She persisted, however, in spread- 
ing a report that his people had looted her chateau. 
Much later the house was destroyed by the guns of 
all nations ; and so I suppose she never saw her 
exceedingly marvellous garments again. 

A characteristic act of the Kaiser's, of which 
I was amused to hear, took place at Constanti- 
nople, whither he and the Empress went with a 
large " suite." 

With Captain vo^i Ilsemann and other attend- 
ants he visited some of the harems and was much 
struck by the beauty and youth of some of the 
inmates. I do not know whether it was a result 
of these visits or not, but the Kaiser announced 
his wish that during his sojourn all the Turkish 
women should go unveiled I This request, or 
order — for at that time the Kaiser was a person of 
tremendous importance to the Turks — was obeyed. 
It struck me as one of the most autocratic acts 
I had ever heard attributed to William ii. 



128 THE EX-KjVISER IN EXILE 

The late ex-Kaiserin was of a very different 
temperament to her husband, and maybe she shared 
the view of the late Mrs. Roosevelt that " a 
woman's name should only be mentioned twice 
in public^ — on the day of her marriage and the day 
of her death." But, retiring and devoted to 
the home and charities as she was, she did not 
lack perspicacity in public affairs. I was told she 
was one of the first to recognise the revolutionary 
danger. 

During the summer of 1918 certain great ladies 
were giving big parties, with buffets loaded with 
every kind of rich food and rare delicacy. This 
behaviour annoyed the Kaiserin very much, and 
she made it known that she strongly disapproved 
of it at a time when it was common knowledge 
that people were starving. Very different from 
the " Why don't they eat cake, then ? " of Marie 
Antoinette, when told the people of Paris had no 
bread. 

The two other ladies most closely bound to 
the ex-Kaiser are, of course, the ex-Crown Princess 
and his daughter, the Duchess of Brunswick. The 
Duchess was known before her marriage to be the 
only person who could wheedle " papa " to do 
her will against his own. She, the only daughter 
in a family of seven, is now the mother of four boys. 
It is curious how the male sex predominates in the 
Hohenzollern family. In looks she is typically 
German. 

Her sister-in-law might readily be taken for a 
Frenchwoman. She is always beautifully dressed, 
and the lead she gave was resulting in a great 
change in women's fashions in Germany when the 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 129 

War came and stopped that particular develop- 
ment. Her prestige in Germany is still quite 
remarkable. 

To servants the ex-Kaiser has a pleasant 
manner. His personal attendants seem strongly 
attached to him, and the general servants, most 
of whom are Dutch, show every sign of content 
with their occupation. I have already noted that 
he makes friendly inquiries about, and gives 
presents to, servants at Amerongen. The nurse 
who went with me to Holland, after seeing him 
and hearing what the others had to say, asked 
me, wonderingly, if he could really be so wicked 
as people had said. 



17 



CHAPTER VIII 

" Ghosts only come to those who look for them." — Holtei. 

The subject of missing property during the War, 
or " lost," was, as I said in the last chapter, a sore 
one with the exile, and he was highly indignant 
that there should have been any suggestion that 
he was not careful of other people's possessions. 
A good deal of interest was taken by some of the 
English illustrated papers early in the War in the 
famous " pastels " of St. Quentin — some eighty of 
the drawings of eighteenth-century beauties by 
Quentin la Tour, which, " the most delicate 
flowers of a refined art," were among the greatest 
treasures of the town. 

He had them all packed by experts and sent 
to Berlin, where he had a book compiled containing 
the history and a reproduction of each picture. 
The book I saw lately,^ and I can testify to its 
beauty. When all the copies were made, the 
originals, it is claimed, were carefully returned to 
their rightful owners. 

The late ex-Kaiserin very much resented what 
was said about the ex- Kaiser in the Press, and this, 
amongst other things, led her to entertain strong 
anti-British feelings. It is curious to reflect that 
this mild and kindly woman, easily moved to 
help those in distress near her, and keeping aloof 

1 September 1920. 

130 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 131 

from politics, was the one at Doom who was dis- 
tinguished by a bitter disUke for the Enghsh — 
she would on no account ever see any one of the 
race, if such a meeting were desired by the other 
side. This may be explained by the fact that she 
was typically German in her home life. One knows 
how the husband bulks in the households of the 
Fatherland — a massive figure ! Violent hands 
were to be laid on her husband. That was indelibly 
impressed on her mind as the central fact ; and 
to her the other facts were of little account. 

Since she went to Doom she was so ill that she 
seldom saw any one but her most intimate friends, 
and Countess Keller and Countess von Brockdorff- 
Rantzau were the ladies who were most constantly 
with her. 

She spent much of her time in making and 
knitting garments for the children in the most 
impoverished parts of Germany, and seldom left 
her rooms, but the homely side of the life around 
her always awakened her interest. Nykerk, a 
place on the Zuyder Zee well known to tourists and 
about twenty miles from Doom, is one of the few 
places where peasants still wear the traditional 
dress of the country, a peculiarity of which is that 
little girls of from four to fourteen are dressed 
like old women and don numberless parti-coloured 
petticoats, twenty-seven having been the highest 
number so far attained ! Sometimes these children 
come to Doom, and the ex-Kaiserin was always 
amused to see them. 

One of the ex-Kaiser's pleasures now is to 
give or to go to luncheon and dinner parties, at 
which are present people whose acquaintance he 



132 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

has made since his arrival. But not all the 
neighbours enter into relations with him. There 
is, indeed, a strong party in Holland, and not only 
in democratic circles, which views the presence 
of the exile with great disfavour. It is often 
said that Holland is pro-German, but before 
anything Holland is sturdily and steadfastly pro- 
Dutch I Apropos these parties, there was a diffi- 
culty last September in obtaining meat owing to 
the prevalence of foot-and-mouth disease in the 
district. Count Godard thereupon sent as much 
game as he could to Doom, though at that time 
partridges were the only available birds. As the 
exile has no shooting of his own these were very 
acceptable. 

To Amerongen he goes frequently, sometimes 
on very short notice. One may judge how little 
he is inclined to dally over his own luncheon by 
the fact that, though that meal is fixed at Doom 
for one o'clock, he often telephones that he will 
arrive at Amerongen about two. On these 
occasions he usually remains for the whole after- 
noon and sometimes until as late as seven o'clock. 
The duration of his stay largely depends on 
whether the turn of the conversation leads him 
on to favourite subjects. 

His talk, then, has " an infinite variety," touch- 
ing upon works of philosophy, music, religion, 
history, travel, Assyriology, and Egyptology. I 
mention the last because he is very much interested 
in the history of ancient civilisation. It will be 
remembered that in his travels in the East he 
showed a practical interest in the excavations on 
the sites of buried cities. He has not lost that 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 133 

interest, and when the subject is broached the 
conversation tends to become chiefly a monologue. 

Religion in all its aspects is also a favourite 
topic with him, and this leaning he may perhaps 
inherit from his ancestor, Frederick William ii., 
maker of the alliance between England, Prussia, 
and Holland about one hundred and thirty years 
ago, who was much inclined to look upon the 
mystic side of life, and constantly had recourse to 
mediums for advice in political affairs. Bismarck, 
in the third volume of his Thoughts and Remini- 
scences which have lately appeared, refers to this 
peculiarity in Frederick William, for it was a trait 
of which his sturdy character did not approve ; 
and it will be remembered that the first difference 
between him and the young Prince arose when 
the latter supported a Court chaplain's plan for 
fighting the rising Socialist movement by means 
of Christian teaching. 

I heard that William ii. was interested in the 
researches into supernormal phenomena which a 
well-known Bavarian was making on the lines 
followed by Sir William Crookes and Sir Oliver 
Lodge ; but it was a subject which was not 
congenial ; and how little his entourage, who 
usually reflect his views, were inclined to give 
credence to such legends as that of the " Angels 
of Mons " will appear from the following account 
of a conversation in which I took part. 

One night, after dinner at Amerongen, our talk 
turned— as it so often does in life, and more 
especially at the present time — on ghosts and super- 
natural phenomena, and as a natural consequence 
the subject of the " Angels of Mons " was broached. 



134 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

Captain von Ilsemann, the ex-Kaiser's aide-de- 
camp, asked me whether I beheved in the story. 
I told him that I had never met any one who had 
seen the vision with his own eyes, but that, on 
the other hand, I did not find it at all difficult 
to believe. 

" British people always believe in such things," 
he replied laughingly, " and there they differ very 
much from the German races. Besides, it is 
nearly always women who give credence to such 
tales ; men are seldom affected by them." 

" I must say, though," he went on, " that 
although there is nothing analogous to the ' Angels 
of Mons ' story in the German Army, we often 
thought we saw masses of men behind your first 
line troops, and were surprised that you did not 
follow up your advance on these occasions, feeling 
so sure that you had plenty of reserves. Oh, it 
was, taken all round, a mysterious war, full of 
happenings that no one can account for or 
explain." 

I said that perhaps Prussians (he is a Prussian) 
are not so open to supernatural influences as are 
some other peoples. 

Then we reverted to his remark that it is 
usually only women who pay attention to tales 
of the supernatural. " Let me tell you of one 
man, at any rate, who had cause to take a ' ghost ' 
seriously," I said, and related the experience of a 
colonel in the British Army, as recounted by him- 
self, and not, I believe, yet published. 

The colonel was awakened one night by a 
strange feeling which he could not explain. By 
his bed he saw a nun standing. Naturally aston- 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 135 

ished and annoyed at her presence, he demanded 
how she had managed to get there. 

She, however, gave him an evasive answer to 
this question, and then proceeded calmly to tell 
him that the world deserved the War on account 
of its wickedness and godlessness, and that 
millions would have to suffer much pain and loss 
and horror, but that in the end, which was further 
away than people imagined, England and France 
would win. Then in some mysterious way she 
vanished. 

Very much perturbed at this extraordinary 
incident, the colonel determined to visit a convent 
which he knew was not very far away. In the 
morning he made his way there, and asked to see 
the Reverend Mother. He told her what had 
happened, and said that unless she could guarantee 
that none of her nuns would be guilty in future 
of such an offence, he would have to take strict 
measures, which he would be loth to do, to make 
such visits impossible. 

The Superior of the convent said that she could 
not believe such a thing had taken place, but 
that she would send for all her Sisters, and as they 
filed through the room would he kindly point 
out the culprit ? He acquiesced, and she led the 
way into the adjoining room. 

As he entered he gave an exclamation of 
surprise. The Mother-Superior turned and saw 
him standing in the middle of the room, his eyes 
glued to a picture of a young and meek-faced 
nun which hung upon a wall. " That's her," he 
exclaimed excitedly ; " that's the one who came 
to my tent last night." The Mother-Superior 



136 THE EX-IiAISER IN EXILE 

turned to him, smiling strangely, and said, " Ah, 
she has been dead for twenty years, M. le General." 
It was the picture of a French girl, who died at 
twenty-two, in 1895, and who had entered the 
convent at her particular desire when she was 
only sixteen years of age. To the Catholic world 
to-day she is known as the " Little Flower," and 
the power of working miracles is believed to be 
hers. 

The life of this wonderful girl * is worth an 
hour's study even to the most incredulous and 
busy among us. In these days when positive 
scepticism of all supernormal phenomena is so 
curiously mixed with a willingness to believe 
almost anything without its being vouched for 
by serious and responsible people, the doings 
of this French child cannot help but arrest our 
attention. 

Many soldiers of all nations know her power 
and revere her in the following terms : " Little 
Sister of the Trenches," " War Godmother," 
"Warrior's Chosen One," "Soldier's Saint," 
" Soldier's Shield," " Angel of Battles." 

These lovely names remind us of the soldiers 
of Jeanne d'Arc whom they called by the fascinat- 
ing cognomen of " Victory's Sweetheart." 

In the light of what has happened since 1914 
it is interesting to remember her words as the 
flames were greedily licking round her slim young 
form. " Oh, Rouen, Rouen," she called, " some 
day you will suffer for what you are doing." 

And so, as ever, the axiom of the wise old 

1 See the book Shower of Roses, to be obtained from the Carmelite 
Convent, Lisieux, France. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 137 

Greek remains true — "The mills of the gods 
grind late, but they grind exceeding fine." 

The aide-de-camp could not believe this story. 
" No, no," he said ; " such things do not happen. 
War is a stern and awful reality." 

In connection with the above story I suggested 
that when men were tired out, hungry, overworked, 
and overstrung in every way — mind and body and 
soul — ^they might think they saw, or might even 
really see, sights which would be hidden from them 
in normal moments. In moments when the body 
is nearly worn out and the brain, on the contrary, 
intensely alert, I thought one might be very near 
the border-line, or, indeed, for some moments 
beyond it, without tasting of physical death. 

But he could not see that at all. Although 
he had constantly been in a state of physical 
exhaustion such as I had described, he had never, 
for one fleeting second, he said, had such imaginings. 
Anything he saw was a solid reality. 

We spoke of the ghosts of Glamis and Cortachy, 
and the many Banshee tales with which Ireland 
abounds. But he only laughed, and said there 
were no such stories current in Germany. I got 
the impression that he looked upon it as a sort 
of rather laughable weakness on our part that we 
should think about such things at all^ — a weakness 
due to the infusion of Celtic blood. 

But although the party at the Castle that night 
were very sceptical about the whole subject, a 
fact which I related to them as being the true 
experience of a clair-audient friend of mine did 
arrest their attention, since it had to do with a 
German "Fritz" killed in the early stage of the War. 
i8 



138 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

My friend told me she became conscious that 
there was a German spirit presence in the room 
she occupied in an hotel in the North of England, 
where she was staying for a few months. The 
proprietress at first indignantly denied that any 
German had ever been in the house. Later, on 
being pressed, she said that before the War a 
German man of business had often had that room. 
My friend, herself a medium, got into direct com- 
munication with this spirit, who, among other 
strange things, informed her that he " hated being 
dead." He was young, apparently, and had been 
cut off much too soon from the joys of life. And 
now he came to her as being the only one whom he 
could get into communication with, and told her 
that he wanted to have news of his wife and of 
the child which had been born to her just after 
his death. He gave his name and the name of 
the town where his wife lived. My friend had 
never heard of the town, but on looking in a 
gazetteer she found it was a suburb of Berlin. 

Captain von Ilsemann said he thought it a 
remarkable story, and asked if any steps had been 
taken to find the woman out. He thought he 
had scored when he found that none had been. 
We agreed that it was the death of youth which 
had brought the subject so much to the fore lately. 

PerhapSj as I have been dealing with " visions," 
I may be permitted to recall an omen. In February 
1914 I was at Port Said on my way to Jerusalem, 
and while I was in the boat an Indian soothsayer 
came up to me begging to tell my fortune. As 
this is a temptation I never can refuse, I acquiesced, 
and was immediately " rooked " of £2 ! 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 189 

The soothsayer squatted down and began to 
make cabalistic signs on the deck. Suddenly 
looking up, he said, in awestruck tones, " August ! 
August! Something terrible in August." Horrified 
I asked whether something very dreadful was 
going to happen to me then. 

But he continued, in tones of scorn, " Not to 
you ! To the world. Blood, blood, in August ! " 

And nothing else could be got out of him. 

In connection with these subjects a curious 
little paragraph may be read in the preface which 
Wilkie Collins wrote to his extraordinary book, 
■The Moonstone, in 1866. In relating of the evil 
attributes possessed by some precious stones, he 
mentioned that it was a deeply rooted belief that 
the large stone which was set in the sceptre be- 
longing to the Czar of Russia was a carrier of 
bad luck, and that sooner or later the power of 
the possessor of this stone would fall and crumble. 

These words were written more than fifty years 
ago ! 

During the War much mystery at times covered 
the Kaiser's movements. I have read in the 
German newspapers lyrical descriptions of his 
ubiquity, how one morning you would hear of 
him here, the next hundreds of miles away — 
mysterious, all-pervading, untiringly vigilant, ever 
the mainspring of grand plans on all fronts. 

I asked his aide-de-camp whether there was any 
truth in the story, widely circulated at one time, 
that other men had been dressed up like the Kaiser 
and been rushed about Europe as " decoys " 
to keep the actual whereabouts of the War-Lord 
a secret. 



140 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

" What things people will believe ! " laughed 
the aide-de-camp, as he denied that there had ever 
been any decoys. 

Talk once turned to the ingenuity and daring 
of Captain Miiller of the Emden. I remarked that 
so famous had the voyage of Miiller become that 
" Emden " was almost a household word at one 
time, and that some one had been called " the 
Emden " because " she was so fast and had never 
been caught yet " ! This was repeated at Doom 
for the amusement of the exile. 

That the ex-Kaiser is a very " temperamental " 
person is well known. Nobody needs to be re- 
minded of his long series of " indiscretions," from 
(to take only those directly affecting this country) 
the Kruger telegram of 1895 to the famous inter- 
view on Anglo-German naval rivalry in 1908. 
But how much of these manifestations was due to 
mere " temperament " and how much to calculated 
policy has been a matter of doubt to those who 
have had no opportunities of close observation. 
A well-known saying of his was that it was natural 
to him to trust people rather than to mistrust 
them. My own impression is that " tempera- 
ment " played a larger part than is generally 
supposed. A glance at the uncertainties of his 
manner in the reception of visitors during his 
exile^may give us a clue. 

He may be going to meet some people with 
whom he has made up his mind he will not agree. 
Should their appearance and their demeanour, 
contrary to his expectation, please him when he 
speaks to them, he will readily grant some request 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 141 

he had fully intended to refuse. A moment after 
he may regret that he had committed himself to a 
promise, and again change his mind a few hours 
later. 

Prince Biilow, for long the Imperial Chancellor, 
used, as a result of studying his master's idiosyn- 
crasies, to sandwich his political requests between 
as many jokes as he could collect, and by thus 
diverting the Kaiser's attention, get the kind of 
answer he wanted. Whether the Chancellor often 
succeeded in hoodwinking his master, I cannot say, 
but it is certain that the ex-Kaiser is extremely 
sensitive to personal impressions and thus very 
variable in manner. 

He may, for instance, have intended to be 
affable to visitors, but be put out of humour by 
some little incident unconnected with the visitors, 
or by some nuance of their manner displeasing to 
him, and his whole behaviour will be cold and 
abrupt. Sometimes, when he is not pleased, or 
is nervous or upset, he only gives two fingers when 
he shakes hands, though his usual handshake is 
cordial. 

He is, in short, an impetuouSj highly strung, 
emotional man, suffering from restrictions for 
which nothing in his previous life prepared him. 
His powers were kept at full working pitch, and 
his intellect was stimulated, when he could rush 
from one corner of Europe to the other — from 
Norwegian fjord to Grecian isle — in company with 
the chosen ones of the earth. No one, perhaps, 
enjoyed the pleasures the world holds for the 
mighty as much and as fully as he did. Now he 
feels the lack of them proportionately keenly. 



142 tfj: ex-kaiser in exile 

and it is understandable that the variableness of 
temperament which, under the stimulus of select 
intelligences, is said to have given a certain vivid 
charm to his personality in the old days, should 
appear a less attractive characteristic in the 
absence of the dazzling accompaniments of a Court. 

Visitors, generally speaking, are welcomed at 
Doom for the break they afford in an other- 
wise rather monotonous existence. They must be 
authorised visitors, of course ; he would never 
lack for callers if he were an easily accessible 
person. And, in spite of the barriers placed in 
the way of the merely curious, he receives a fairly 
constant stream of guests. 

The most important of these are, naturally, his 
sons. The ex-Crown Prince comes over from 
Wieringen only at stated times. There is no 
privacy about these visits, which are always 
mentioned in the Dutch Press. The opinions one 
hears about him are many and diverse. I was 
told that he was very popular in the army, and 
that the soldiers would do anything for him. 

In his book. Count Czernin mentions a conver- 
sation which he had with him in 1917 about a 
possible Peace, and he says that the Crown Prince 
promised to go to Vienna to discuss it with the 
Emperor Karl. He never went, however, and 
later, when Count Czernin met Ludendorff in 
Berlin, the latter said to him, "What have you 
been doing to our Crown Prince ? He had got 
quite slack, but we have stiffened him up again." 

On the other hand, it is said that he was 
always extremely warlike. As far as I could 
gather, however, there seems to be a great differ- 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 143 

ence in the feelings entertained by the German 
people for the fugitives. Whereas the ex-Kaiser 
is always talked about and discussed, whether on 
friendly or unfriendly lines, the name of the 
Crown Prince is never mentioned. I gather that 
his character is not admired by serious people in 
Germany. 

Relations with his father are now more cordial 
than they were. The heir to a throne is sometimes 
troublesomely independent, as the ex-Kaiser, if 
he takes a backward glance to his own youth, 
may remember ; but acute discords have ceased 
with the removal of the occasion of them. Their 
views on many general questions still differ, but 
they can discuss them amicably. The once 
ebullient Crown Prince is now considerably subdued, 
and his visits are very quiet affairs, spent almost 
wholly within the grounds of Doom. 

But it would seem that it has taken two years 
of what is practically imprisonment in a doleful 
Dutch island to make him thoughtful, as becomes 
his years and position. An incident, which showed 
how careless and haphazard were his ways, oc- 
curred when he came to Holland. 

On the evening on which he arrived, at the 
end of his flight, he drove up to the house allotted 
him for residence in a fly hired from the nearest 
posting-house. It was apparently a " dark and 
stormy night," and he and his companions may 
have been bewildered and tired. At any rate, he 
was so forgetful of what was in his charge — moral 
obligation, from what we hear, at no time caused 
the volatile prince serious inconvenience — ^that he 
left in the cab some archives of the Royal House ! 



144 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

One can imagine his consternation when his 
belongings came to be sorted out. Ultimately the 
important documents were found, and I dare say 
were given into the care of more competent hands. 

The other sons come pretty frequently, for, 
unlike their elder brother, they are free to move 
about as they wish ; and his daughter, the Duchess 
of Brunswick, and her husband and children are 
the most constant, and also, I may say, the most 
affectionate of visitors. They may be seen not 
infrequently in the villages of Doom and Ameron- 
gen, and going to and fro to the Bentinck residences, 
without any fuss or display, but at their ease. 
The little son, aged about three years, of Prince 
Joachim (whose tragic death took place last 
August in Berlin) spends a good deal of time with 
his grandparents, and, like all children, he brings 
an atmosphere of gaiety and insouciance to a 
house where the outlook is often sombre. The 
ex-Kaiser delights in the child's prattle. 

Children whose visits are looked forward to 
are the three lively boys whom the ex-Crown 
Princess brings. Their mother, who is still highly 
esteemed and popular in Germany, has very 
sensible ideas about their upbringing and the 
importance of a good education. She is training 
them to be self-reliant and simple in their tastes, 
so that they may be able to " fend for themselves " 
whatever the future may hold for them of a high 
destiny or an obscure. One has to bear in mind 
in this connection that the ex-Kaiser renounced 
all rights to the throne only for himself ! 

During their stays at Doom the children spend 
a good deal of time at Amerongen, where^ they 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 145 

may ride, motor, and row about on the moats. 
The last is a particularly favoured pastime, for it 
is easy to fall in the water if the boats are not 
carefully handled ! Many little mementoes are 
given to the servants on the conclusion of these 
visits, such as, for example, a tobacco-pouch to 
the chauffeur at Amerongen from the ex-Crown 
Princess. This, by the way, was the chauffeur 
who brought the exile from the unpleasant situa- 
tion at Maarn Station to the hospitable atmosphere 
of Amerongen. To his pride, the ex-Kaiser told 
him he was the best driver he had ever sat behind 
— ^the giving of this encomium being one of the 
little ways in which he showed his relief at the 
ending of his historic flight. 

That reminds me that the rooms at Ameron- 
gen are full of objets d'art, which the exiles, in 
gratitude for the hospitality shown them, have 
bestowed on their former host. Among the many 
presents to Count Godard Bentinck are two 
paintings of the ex-Kaiserin and the ex-Kaiser, 
done just before the War, and a life-sized white 
marble bust, done at the beginning of the War, 
which I mentioned as being very conspicuous at 
the wedding luncheon-party. Before she left 
Amerongen the late ex-Kaiserin gave Count Godard 
a finely chased gold box studded thickly with 
diamonds. Photographs of the ex-Kaiser's sons 
and daughter are everywhere to be seen, all with 
inscriptions below, such as " In eternal gratitude 
for all you have done for my parents," and " We 
can never thank you enough for all you have 
done." 

Prince Henry of Prussia, the ex-Kaiser's 
19 



146 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

brother, is perhaps the one whose visits are most 
eagerly awaited. He comes often, though his stay 
is usually brief. With him, more than with any 
other, the ex-Kaiser enjoys long and intimate 
conversations; there is no one closely associated 
with him who can keep him so well informed of 
the " temperature " of Germany. Prince Henry 
brings or sends all the " very latest " literature — 
books, pamphlets, and what-not — ^touching on the 
most important and most minute developments 
in the subjects which he knows most deeply 
interest the ex-Kaiser — of which the two chief 
are, as I have said before. Freemasonry and 
the Jewish question. The writings of Mr. E. D. 
Morel, who gained some notoriety during the 
War as a pacifist journalist and lecturer, were 
also sent ; and the exile is much interested in any- 
thing in English that states a case for Germany 
and criticises English action during and after 
the War. Amongst others who visit him, Field- 
Marshal von Hindenburg is notable for his un- 
swerving attachment to the ex-Emperor. Some 
highly placed men of the old Empire are " con- 
spicuous by their absence " — a matter of bitter- 
ness to the ex-Kaiser — but to Hindenburg, so far 
as personal relations are concerned, the revolution 
is as if it had not been. He remains gravely 
deferential to " My King, my Emperor, and my 
master " on his visits, and the ex-Kaiser naturally 
enjoys this treatment, apart from the respect with 
which he, in accordance with all who know him, 
regards the sturdy old veteran. He was not 
present at the wedding I attended, but had sent 
his regrets that he could not give his good wishes 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 147 

in person to the aide-de-camp, who had once 
been on his staff. Many visitors, whose stay is 
brief and of whom very little is heard, come and 
go unobtrusively. If they are high military and 
naval personages they are not, at any rate, be- 
trayed by uniforms. Since he removed to his 
wooded retreat at Doom, the exile no doubt finds 
it easier than at Amerongen to receive certain 
guests. He naturally observes all the discretion 
required of him in his position, and there is nothing 
to show that he has any part in directing the 
activities of his adherents in Germany ; but it 
would be expecting too much of him to refuse 
to see occasionally people who were prominent in 
his service in the old days. 

As the nearest point of the German frontier is 
only about seventy miles away, former subjects 
can come to Doom for a few hours, on the chance 
of catching a glimpse of the exile, and return on 
the same day. 

But it is not only from the Fatherland that 
guests arrive. Many Dutch people also are pleased 
to be entertained by him. Eating is, indeed, 
apart from a necessity, a very useful invention ! 
Was it not Talleyrand (accredited with most 
sayings of the sort) who, apropos food, said, 
" Tell me another pleasure which comes twice a 
day and lasts an hour each time ? " Not that it 
is the food so much as the company which is the 
attraction of these parties to the exile. 

An honoured visitor who came to see the exile 
soon after the abdication was the abbot of a 
leading Benedictine monastery in Germany. I 
understood, but am not certain, that he was 



148 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

the abbot of Maria Laach, the renowned old 
Bavarian monastery (which dates from the tenth 
century), where the well-known von Stotzingen 
was abbot, and where, before the War, the ex-Kaiser 
was a constant guest. 

It was to this renowned house that members of 
princely families would repair to seek peace from 
worldly distractions if they had a vocation for the 
priesthood and an inclination towards monastic life. 

The Emperor (as he then was) designed a 
reredos in stone for the altar in the church at 
Maria Laach. This, although a fine thing in 
itself, did not really blend with the rest of the 
structure of the old building, and so the monks 
had another — a movable one — made to their own 
design. This was used all the year round, except 
when the Emperor informed them of an intended 
visit, and on these occasions it was removed, 
leaving exposed the Emperor's work of art for him 
to see in making a round of the monastery ! By 
this wily trick did the monks please both them- 
selves and their Royal visitor ! 

The exile has always been greatly impressed 
by the power of the Roman Catholic Church, and, 
when a ruler, was always particularly careful of 
the susceptibilities of the very numerous and very 
important section of his subjects who belonged 
to that Church. But he is, of course, a Lutheran, 
and more versed in Protestant doctrines. Thus a 
frequent guest at Doom is the minister of the Dutch 
Reformed Church, of whom mention has been 
previously made, who lives at Utrecht, and through 
his friendship with the Bentinck family has come 
to know the exile very well. 




(From a picture by Mierevelt at Amsterdam.) 

WILLIAM THE SILENT 

Prince of Orange. Born 1533- Murdered 1584 by Balthazar Gerard 

From whom by his 3rd wife, Catherine de Bourbon are descended the 

ex-Kaiser and his late host Count Godard Bentmck. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 149 

I asked at Amerongen whether there was any 
truth in the reports that the ex-Kaiser had com- 
posed an opera, painted a picture, written a book, 
and so on, but these were laughed at as canards. 
He is fond of music and sufficiently acquainted 
with technique to be appreciative, but he is in no 
way a performer. 

That an allegorical painting which pointed to 
the necessity of the white races uniting in face 
of the " Yellow Peril " should be attributed to 
him is not surprising. He is still perturbed by 
the fear of a future overwhelming of Western 
civilisation by hordes from the East, and often 
touches on the " neglected danger " in conversation. 

Another topic in which he is much interested 
is that of genealogy. In this he is not unique ! 
His cult of his ancestors has almost a Far Eastern 
fervour, as all may judge from the famous " Sieges 
Allee " in Berlin, in which, with obvious pride if 
not with a fine discrimination or a fastidious sense 
of beauty, he has placed statues of his ancestors 
representing them as " heroes." 

One of the ancestors of which he is the proudest 
is William the Silent, first Stadtholder of the 
Netherlands. He was interested to hear that his 
former host at Amerongen could boast a fourfold 
descent in the female line from that renowned 
leader also, by his third wife, Charlotte de Bourbon, 
daughter of Louis, Due de Montpensier, of the 
Royal House of France. 

He (Louis) was descended in the direct male 
line from Louis ix. (St. Louis) through thelatter's 
younger son, Robert de Clermont. 

Charlotte was therefore a great-niece of Charles 



150 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

de Bourbon, Constable of France, who was killed 
at the famous Sack of Rome in 1527, and belonged 
naturally to the same family as Antoine de 
Bourbon, father of Henri iii. of Navarre and iv. 
of France ; of Charles Cardinal de Bourbon and 
of the celebrated Louis i.. Prince de Conde, killed 
at Jarnac in 1567 — the famous and notorious 
uncles of Henri iv. 

It was through the marriage of the aforesaid 
Robert de Clermont with Agnes, Princess of 
Bourbon, that the Bourbon designation first came 
into the Capet family. So all this man's descend- 
ants were de Bourbon (of the Bourbon family — 
showing what weight the mother's family carried 
in those days), and thus Henri iv. and Louis de 
Montpensier (Charlotte's father) were descendants 
directly of the Bourbon marriage. 

Charlotte, as a baby, had been sent to be brought 
up by her aunt, who was abbess of the rich abbey 
of Jouarre. There, it is said, for political reasons, 
she was forced to become a nun at the age of 
twelve. At the age of eighteen, however, she drew 
up a document, attested by witnesses, repudiating 
the vows which she had made against her will. 
She then left the abbey and went to live at Heidel- 
berg with her relation, the Elector Palatine, and 
his wife. This Court was the centre of Huguenot 
sympathy ; all her near relations, on the other 
hand, were on fire for the Catholic cause. 

William the Silent seems to have first seen her 
a few days after her escape from the convent. 
Three years later he resolved to marry her ! He 
was forty-two and had been twice married, his 
second wife having been repudiated by him on 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 151 

the score of madness seven years previously. 
Charlotte was twenty-five, and had been a nun 
until her eighteenth year. 

Round their marriage raged one of the most 
furious family and religious feuds known in 
domestic history/ In the face of the profound 
disgust and criticism of nearly every faction in 
Europe, William nevertheless carried out his desire 
and, in 1575, married her. 

They were, indeed, a strangely assorted pair ! 
She, a Catholic, a French princess, and a renegade 
nun ; he, born a Lutheran and a German count, 
brought up a Catholic in the Court of Spain, became 
by inheritance a Flemish magnate and a sovereign 
prince, ultimately died a Calvinist at the hand of 
a fanatical Catholic. 

But as the years went by hostility died down. 
As a wife she was an immense success and very 
happy. Her Protestant relations warmly sup- 
ported her, and she was eventually reconciled to 
her father and the Catholic princes of Europe. 

Plainly the form was not legal, but they were 
still too near the Reformation for any proper 
procedure for the legal dissolution of marriages to 
have been drawn up. Moreover, his second wife, 
Anne of Saxony, was unnormal to what was virtu- 
ally insanity ; she had dishonoured her husband 
numberless times, and was notorious all through 
Europe for her infamous character. 

In the year following the marriage of William 
and Charlotte, a daughter was born to them, whom 
they named Louise Juliana. She is the direct 

1 For facts I referred to William the Silent, by Mr. Frederick 
Harrison. 



152 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

ancestress of the House of Hanover and of nearly 
all the Royal Houses of Europe. 

Queen Victoria was the nearest to her in descent, 
and may I be permitted to say that my children are 
eleventh in descent from this most unconventional 
and unfanatical of men by his Bourbon wife. 

In whatever light one criticises him it cannot 
be said that the "game was not worth the candle." 
His aims and his ideals were not misplaced, 
and four hundred years later the substantial proof 
of his wisdom can be seen in the Holland of 
to-day splendidly ruled by a woman whose father 
was the last male descendant of the House of 
Orange-Nassau. 

The pedigrees I give on the opposite page show 
the manner in which William ii., ex-German 
Emperor, and his host, Count Godard Bentinck, 
are descended from the great Stadtholder. 

The Emperor entered into the whole life of the 
Castle very fully, as the following little incident 
shows. Every winter the Rhine rises considerably, 
but last year ^ the floods were worse than " the 
oldest inhabitant " could remember, and the whole 
country for miles was under water ; even the 
highest dikes were threatened with complete 
immersion. A burgomaster in a neighbouring 
village was drowned through falling off a flooded 
road in the dark into the deep water at the sides. 

The danger was serious, — how serious only 
those who live in a low-lying country like Holland 
can realise, — so every available person in and 
outside the house at Amerongen had to work at 
the pumps and help to build up the outside dike 

^ 1919-20. 





(Photo, by Coinpton Collier.) 



LADY NORAH BENTINCK 
With her children Brydgytte Blanche aged sf, and Henry Noel 
aged lo months rroao) ^ 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 153 

(round the outer moat) with faggots. In this work 
the ex-Kaiser joined with zest. Sometimes, no 
doubt from habit, he gave orders which — incident- 
ally — were not always obeyed. For weeks no one 
could go anywhere except in a boat, and I believe 
that, notwithstanding every one's strenuous efforts, 
some water did penetrate the lower part of the 
Castle. 

The framework of the rooms in which the ex- 
Kaiser lived at Amerongen are, curiously enough, 
of German wood. When, in 1672, Louis xiv. 
stayed at Amerongen, the owner, Baron Godard 
de Reede Ginkel, was Dutch Ambassador to the 
" Great Elector " of Brandenburg (father of the first 
King of Prussia), and was in Germany intriguing 
against the French king living in his house ! 
This enraged Louis so much that, when leaving 
the place, he ordered French troops quartered at 
Utrecht to set fire to the building. This they did 
most thoroughly, filling the house with faggots. 

When the Elector heard of his friend's loss he 
sent him eight hundred enormous oaks from his 
forests round Berlin to help in rebuilding the 
house. 

The ex-Kaiser's eyes shone when he was told 
this. " So, anyhow, my trees and my river didn't 
desert me," he remarked — ^tbe latter part an 
allusion to the fact that the moats are filled from 
the Rhine. 



20 



CHAPTER IX 

" Full of misery is the mind anxious about the future." 

Seneca. 

At Doom beats the heart that was Germany ; 
for in the old days no one €ould think of Germany 
without the Emperor or of the Emperor without 
Germany. Will the ex-Kaiser again be the heart 
of Germany ? If he does not return, will some 
other Hohenzollern become head of the old Empire 
or at least of the Prussian State ? From Doom 
he is watching events. 

He would not be human if he did not dream of 
a future restoration, if not for himself at least 
for his House. But he would not be politic if he 
showed himself to be striving to make any such 
dream a reality, or even to be " thinking ahead " 
in preparation for a " coup " at a propitious 
moment. Therefore, whether he be merely dream- 
ing and drifting, or is actively planning, he naturally 
does not disclose. And his entourage, while ready 
to discuss the War, its origin and many of its conse- 
quences, from a point of view exactly opposite to 
the British, are dumb regarding the future of the 
Hohenzollerns ; the subject is taboo outside the 
walls of Doom. But still there are many little 
indications given of the point of view taken there. 

First of all, there is the phrase which I heard 
several times when I was at Amerongen that 

164 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 155 

" England has won the War but has lost the Peace." 
That sounds portentous, and is at any rate con- 
solatory to the defeated ; but I could not find out 
that more was meant than that the '* economic 
consequences " of the War would be disappointing 
to the victors and that the political rearrangement 
of Europe was quite unstable. 

The ex-Kaiser thinks that the men who drew 
up the Versailles Peace Treaty were not sufficiently 
experienced to pretend to deal with the stupendous 
problems that came before them. It was, in his 
view, more than could be expected of human 
beings that they should be able in a few months to 
rearrange, with any prospect of their scheme being 
permanent, a Europe whose centralised and highly 
efficient organisations in 1914 were the outcome 
not only of the work of a succession of nineteenth- 
century nation-builders but of centuries of evolu- 
tion. Germany, with its many millions of capable 
people welded into a nation, was bound to remain 
a great European Power drawing lesser States into 
its orbit, and the attempts he thought were made 
to put artificial barriers in her way could only fail 
sooner or later. From all I heard, I feel sure he 
would agree with the neat epigram of the cynic 
that " The War to end war has been followed by a 
Peace to end peace." 

One wonders what scheme he and his advisers 
would have offered at the Conference table had 
it been the fate of the Central Powers rather than 
that of the Allies to sit there ! 

It is so much easier to criticise than to act ; 
to pull down than to build up. 

The League of Nations, in his opinion, so far as 



166 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

it is not a disguised anti-German alliance in the old 
style, is merely attempting to put into practice a 
very old and very unsuccessful European idea — 
and Leagues are discussed, from that projected 
by Henri Quatre down to the Holy Alliance of 
a hundred years ago, to show the futility of the 
project. As an ideal it is attractive ; as a 
working proposition it is impracticable. 

It is another name for the Balance of Power 
which Henri iv. and Sully had in their heads 
when they proposed having a Republique tres 
Chritienne in Europe. 

This idea underlay the arrangements of the 
Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 to check the power of 
the Hapsburgs. Nearly a century later it led to 
the European coalition against the aggressions of 
Louis XIV. at the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. 

A hundred years after this it peeped out again 
at the Vienna Conference in trying to set legislation 
in motion which would make another Napoleon 
impossible. It led to the coalition of Britain, 
France, Sardinia, and Turkey against Russia, which 
resulted in the Crimean War in 1854. 

The Balance of Power idea was again operative 
in the Berlin Congress in 1878, which tried to 
regulate the affairs of the Balkans. 

Later it was the basis for the alliance of Ger- 
many, Austria, and Italy as opposed to that of 
France and Turkey. Since its existence as a 
kingdom in 1830 the neutrality of Belgium has 
been a principle of European public law. On its 
violation the " Great European War " broke out. 
Since then the League of Nations idea was 
given birth to by an American citizen born in 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 157 

England. Those who live will see whether it 
succeeds in its noble aims. But it seems that 
neither men's minds nor their bodies can keep 
still for very long. Roughly speaking, Wars and 
Heresies come every hundred years or so. 

It is to be expected that sooner or later there 
will be restored a Germany seeking for power on 
the old lines, and the ex-Kaiser holds that the 
country will then need Prussia and, above all, a 
Hohenzollern to guide her in her efforts to regain 
the position which she held in 1914. 

One of Goethe's characters remarked that, " It 
is so sweet to reign " (" Es ist so siiss zu herschen "). 
One wonders whether William ii. would agree 
with this ! 

From all one hears to-day, it is not the Mon- 
archical idea that the bulk of the German people 
object to, but the excessive Military one. 

The Austrian friend with whom I stayed in 
Vienna happened to be related to the German 
Royal family. She often remarked to me, with 
an amused little " moue," in answer to my com- 
ments on the charm of the Viennese, " Yes, they 
are delightful, but it is my Hohenzollern blood 
that gives me all my energy and go ! " That is 
the view of the exile's entourage also — Prussia is 
the "Push and Go " of Germany. 

It would be tactless to suggest at Doom that the 
War, with its catastrophic end for Germany, was 
the result of Hohenzollern guidance, accompanied 
by a strong " Push " from Prussia ! 

It is worth while, after tracing thus far the lines 
of thought at Doorn, to note the prospects the new 
Constitution offers to a Hohenzollern. A first 



158 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

significant fact is that it is possible for the President 
of the Republic to be of Royal birth ; Berlin has 
not to look far abroad or far back to know that a 
republic in such circumstances may be induced by 
a bold President to become a monarchy. Then, 
to quote from the Quarterly Review's analysis : * 

" The sovereign power is divided between the 
President and the Reichstag, each being elected 
by the whole body of the German people voters. 
The President is thus placed in a very autocratic 
position. ... In the range of his executive 
authority he outdoes the Kaiser, for he exercises, 
in addition to supreme Imperial control, a very 
large authority which, under the Imperial system, 
was vested in the State Governments of Germany. 
He is elected for seven years, is eligible at the 
end of that term for re-election, and is responsible 
only to the German people. . . . Furthermore, the 
President of the Republic is Commander-in-Chief 
of the Army. It is clear that a short step would 
in conceivable circumstances convert his office into 
a monarchy." 

One can see the bearing on this situation of 
the results of the Prussian Diet elections of 20th 
February,^ and the consolations and hopes these 
offer to the exile of Doom. The purely mon- 
archical party increased its total of votes from 
102,000 in January 1919 to 169,000, and the non- 
Socialist parties, who include very many half- 
avowed and very many undisguised monarchists, 
had a combined poll of 442,000 in February, as 
compared with 359,000 last year, while the 

1 January 1921. 
2 1921. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 159 

Socialist vote fell in the same time from 619,000 
to 519,000. The monarchist party's cry was " A 
strong party under the Hohenzollerns " ; and it 
is difficult to see any essential difference from that 
in the views of two of the leading orators of the 
German People's Party (group of Hugo Stinnes, the 
multi-millionaire), such as Dr. Borlitz, a high school 
professor who fervently preaches that " the Empire 
can only be founded on the Kaiser idea, which still 
slumbers in the hearts of the best of the German 
people," and Professor Brandi, who swears that 
" all the greatness of Prussia comes from the 
dynasty." I have mentioned that the Berlin 
Kreuz Zeitung is much appreciated at Doom. It 
is easy to judge of the tonic effect on the exile of 
the reinstatement in that newspaper of its old 
motto, " Forward, with God for King and Father- 
land ! " which device it used at those elections for 
the first time since the Revolution. 

A distinction possibly may have to be made 
between the ex-Kaiser's hopes for himself and 
those for his House. When I was in Holland, and 
especially on my first visit in February 1919, his 
own professed desire was to sink into privacy. 
He hoped a thick curtain would fall behind him 
when he passed the friendly portals of Amerongen. 
The observed of all observers, as he had contrived 
to be for most of his life, was to become the 
Recluse, the Silent One of Europe. 

He may shrink from public gaze now, but in 
February 1919 he positively courted obscurity. 
Some people may think that he cannot possibly 
overcome the delight in publicity that was so 
obvious before the War, and that he still finds 



160 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

satisfaction in constant allusions to his doings in 
the Press. That would be a mistaken idea. The 
less he sees his name mentioned the better he is 
pleased ; the references to him have been usually 
too wounding for his peace of mind. 

At my first visit ^ the question whether or not 
he should be tried before an international tribunal 
was then uppermost in the public mind. At that 
moment the world was overcome with grief for 
the millions of homes ruined and lives broken. 
The British general election had just concluded, 
amid resounding cries of " Hang the Kaiser ! " 
The Paris Conference 'was solemnly debating the 
method by which he might be brought before a 
tribunal, and the place at which he might be tried. 

Only the quiet voice of Lord Robert Cecil was 
not heard in the uproar, who said in an interview 
with the London correspondent of the Echo de Paris 
(16th November 1918) that the extradition of the 
Kaiser could not legally be demanded, but it 
might be requested as a favour. 

I am often asked whether the ex-Kaiser ex- 
pected that he would be tried. As far as I could 
gather, he thought it highly improbable, but 
nevertheless a possibility. 

But however confident he may have been 
that his life, at any rate, was not in danger from a 
trial, understanding, as he did, what the laws of 
extradition are, it was impossible that he should 
not feel nervous at times. The suspense was long. 
Until March 1920 the result of the Allies' demand 
to Holland for his extradition was an open ques- 
tion. During all that time the British and French 

^ February 19 19. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 161 

newspapers were insistent in the demand that he 
should be punished, the Dutch were full of the 
pros and cons of the dispute, and the Germans 
were closely attentive. There was no day on 
which he could escape the question. 

If for nothing else but for its effect on the 
ex-Kaiserin he would have suffered. To the strain 
she then underwent is attributed her breakdown. 
But apart from that, as he is a highly impression- 
able man, he underwent acute mental distress 
from the consciousness that periodic waves of 
detestation of him were passing over the world. 

He professed not to be able to fathom the 
reason for the English persistence in demanding 
his punishment — ^the English whose friendship he 
had so much enjoyed. 

" Why do they hate me so ? Why do the 
English hate me so ? " he would often ask Count 
Godard Bentinck. 

Count Godard repeated the words to me. I 
answered, " But people in England hold him to 
be responsible not only for starting the War but 
for instigating the worst atrocities. They say they 
have proof that all the horrors of Belgium were 
arranged before the War. They will never forget 
the terrible conditions under which British prisoners 
suffered in Germany. Neither can they get over 
the sinking of the Lusitania nor the shooting of 
Miss Cavell. They demand that he who was at the 
head of the Army and was ready enough to take his 
soldiers^ and sailors^ glory should equally take their 
shame. ^^ 

Count Godard repeated my words to the ex- 
Kaiser. The exile looked horrified, and said he 

21 



162 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

had no idea that that was what was thought. 
" How can people's minds invent such horrors, or 
think I would instigate or connive at them ? " he 
asked. 

Apparently his standpoint is that he did not 
invent war, that it always is and must be accom- 
panied by blunders and cruelties, and that these 
were more numerous than previously because the 
War was on such a gigantic scale and involved 
civilians to an extent unprecedented for centuries. 
Also the conscience of civilisation, after a long 
spell of peace, was more acutely conscious of the 
hideous side of war. One does not expect to 
find sensitiveness over-developed in a man who 
told recruits, as the ex-Kaiser did, that if he 
ordered it they might have to fire on their fathers. 
I think, however, that in spite of protestations 
that atrocity charges were inventions, he would 
himself, though unlikely to admit it, be conscious 
of the justice of the remark made to me by an 
officer who was with the German Army in 
Belgium during the first few weeks of the War, 
and therefore at almost the worst " atrocity " 
period. This man told me that, while he had 
himself seen the German troops provoked by the 
civilian population to a very high degree, and he 
considered there was exaggeration in the charges 
brought against the soldiery, he nevertheless 
thought that the German was more brutal and 
coarse-fibred when excited by war and all its 
horrible accompaniments than was the average 
Englishman. 

Another question that I am asked is whether 
or not the exile is writing his memoirs, as report 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 163 

occasionally has it. There was no sign that he 
was composing an apologia, though probably data 
was being collected and arranged. He is not an 
old man, and no one can tell what the future holds 
for him. 

If the German people wished it, and had he 
enough power behind him, one does not see what 
there would be to stqp his return to Germany. 
For the present, however, " dignified silence " is to 
be preserved. 

Had Professor Schiemann been alive, he would 
doubtless have been the person to prepare the 
official " Life," so much was he trusted by the 
Kaiser. One wonders how much that professor's 
report on his visit to Ireland a few weeks before 
war broke out had to do with the impression in 
German official circles that England was too much 
entangled with Irish affairs to intervene on the 
Continent.^ 

The situation in Ireland is very freely discussed 
at Doom, and England's management of the 
sister isle is much criticised, not to say jeered at. 
" England wants to tell the whole of Europe 
how to govern itself," they say. " She is an 
idealist abroad on the subject of autonomy for 
the smaller States, ignoring, when she is not 
concerned, the fact that self-government for little 
countries — ^especially on the Continent, where 
frontiers are seldom a geographical safeguard — 
may seriously affect the military, commercial, and 

1 Since these words were written a book emanating from Doom 
and dated September 1920 has appeared in England, the pubHshers 
being Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton. It is dedicated to twelve 
German generals by the ex-Kaiser, and it is accompanied by a 
booklet written by the late Professor Schiemann. 



164 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

political situation of the large, and therefore 
cannot lightly be granted." 

An interesting fact in the above connection 
is that the de Reede Ginkel who became Earl of 
Athlone, who was prominent at the Battle of the 
Boyne and was largely responsible for subjugating 
Ireland with Dutch William iii., was the owner of 
Amerongen and Middachten. 

Round the hall in the latter house (now in 
the possession of Count Bentinck)i are pictures 
representing warlike scenes in the conquest of 
Ireland. In the village at Middachten there is an 
inn which bears the name of " Arms of Athlone " 
in Dutch (" Wappen van Athlone "). 

The name of Orange, however, will always be 
fraught with sinister memories for Irishmen, with 
the exception, naturally, of the dwellers in the 
north. 

England (which at Doom is called " Engeland,^' 
narrow land — the word Eng in German meaning 
narrow) is closely watched. 

I was questioned with pointed interest about 
coal and railway strikes of 1919 — an interest which I 
felt was akin to that illustrated in the saying that 
not even one's best friends are wholly displeased 
at one's ill-fortune ! They look to the strikes in 
England as sure forerunners of revolution, and 
never cease to wonder why Bolshevism has never 
yet broken out badly in England. Perhaps the 
reason may be found in the dirge-like account 
given to an Englishman by one of the Bolshevik 
leaders in Moscow, who said that England could 
never be stirred up to real Bolshevism because 

^ Eldest son of my father-in-law's second brother. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 165 

the people were all too polite to each other and 
that there one never saw scowling faces. 

When I told them at Amerongen that well- 
known men had driven expresses and worked as 
guards and porters, and that their wives and 
daughters had undertaken to distribute the milk 
in London^ they were extremely surprised. A 
man who had been in the German Army said to 
me, " German people in the same class would 
never have done that." A democratic aristocracy 
seems to be unintelligible to them. 

Count Hermann Keyserling, author of the 
Diary of a Philosopher and a great admirer of many 
things English, refers to the difference which exists 
in English and German aristocracy. He notes 
the self-reliance of the EnglivSh as being much in 
their favour, and it is said that he has started a 
school in Darmstadt where he inculcates his ideas 
on upbringing into boys of good family .^ 

1 Mr. Dent in The AthencBum. 



CHAPTER X 

" Mad world, mad kings." — King Richard ii. 

People constantly ask, "Is the Kaiser mad ? " 
They add, " If not mad, then he must be very 
bad." Many insist that he is both. Put that 
way, it is a difficult question to answer. If I were 
asked, "Is he obsessed ? " I could unhesitatingly 
answer " Yes." 

But is he mad in the sense that the ruin of his 
empire and his dethronement have overthrown 
what mental balance he had ? I would answer. 
No. 

Is he mad in the sense that, as some people 
suppose, he is haunted, to the exclusion of all 
else, by the thought of his own personal responsi- 
bility for the devastation and woe brought to the 
world by the War ? Not at all. 

Has he fallen a victim to what is called " re- 
hgious melancholia " ? Has he lost grip on 
financial affairs ? Is he a prey to baseless alarms 
about his health ? So far as I can learn the 
answer is No. 

In short, though he is a much more subdued 
and much more bewildered mortal, he is about as 
much or as little " mad," in the ordinary sense, 
as he was before the War. 

Horace said that " he held all men to be mad." 
Lesser mortals may be excused for thinking that 

166 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 167 

he was unduly pessimistic ! But it will be agreed 
that to have complete sanity is to have perfect 
poise in every department of the brain, to have 
perfect balance and perfect control. Who would 
suggest that the ex -Kaiser approached that 
ideal ? 

His environment from birth until November 
1918 must have made it well-nigh impossible for 
him even to have as much balance as an ordinary 
man. History has shown us examples of rulers 
without a vestige of vanity in them, men who felt 
it was their duty to serve the State not to use it 
for their personal advantage, men whom even the 
adulation accorded to William ii. from his cradle 
upwards could not have affected. But the ex- 
Kaiser had not their strong heads. He was 
naturally, I think, a vain man — one who preferred 
the glass coach to all other modes of conveyance. 

His vanity, it might be supposed, could not 
become greater in after years than it was in the 
beginning of his reign. But it did not visibly 
grow less. It was fed to distension by the 
delusion that " L'etat, c'est moi ! " He was, 
first of all, in his own opinion, the most gifted 
and the most important person in Germany. 
If Germany could become the most important 
country, so would he be the most important person 
in the world. The advancement of Germany 
became indistinguishable from his own glorifica- 
tion. And this vanity was counted a virtue, 
instead of a weakness. There were never 
flatterers wanting to declare that it was to his 
discerning guidance, to his dynamic impulsion, 
that the growth of the country's power was due. 



168 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

Those who did not flatter had small chance of being 
heard. 

When he visited Kiel the prelude to the 
speeches made by Prince Henry of Prussia were : 
" Exalted Emperor, Puissant King and Master, 
Illustrious Brother, our sublime, mighty, and be- 
loved Kaiser, King and Emperor, for all time, for 
ever and ever— Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah ! " And 
he was allowed to say such things as : " There 
is only one law, my law, the law which I myself 
lay down," and "If I order you to shoot down 
your parents, your brothers and sisters, you are 
to do so." 

Naturally in times of great public up- 
heavals or of revolution such desperate measures 
might have to be used, but one imagines that the 
Kaiser — ^the father of his people — would not care 
to refer lightly to this awful power. 

Accustomed to such modes of address, and 
having these ideas, then, how does it come that he 
has not become mad in the ordinary sense, when, 
instead of appearing to be himself the State, or, 
at least, the personification of it, he finds himself 
an outcast, seeking safety in obscurity, and an 
object of execration for most of the world ? If he 
really believed himself to be mighty in himself, 
how could his mind support the brutal disillusion- 
ment ? 

The answer would be that he can still imagine 
he was the fly that made the wheel go round. He 
is off the wheel ; and is it going round ? He can 
point to post -Revolution Germany and triumphantly 
ask that question. Everything is in a worse con- 
dition than in old autocratic, monarchical days. 



THE EX-I^ISER IN EXILE 169 

If he were reminded that the fly was on the wheel 
when it was spun into the War that brought 
it to an abrupt stop, he would answer that for the 
moment the wheel had got past his control ; for, 
as I have already shown, he refuses to admit that 
he sought the War, much less was the cause of it. 
And he is convinced a fly will get back to the 
wheel, if not the same one, at least a similar if less 
brilliantly coloured one, and then the wheel — 
Germany — will go merrily round again. 

Besides, he does not consider himself to be an 
obscure outcast. In his view, he was hurled from 
power in a cataclysm which was as little to be 
withstood as any giant outbreak of elemental 
forces is by mortals. The expression " cosmic 
catastrophe " expresses the wonderment felt by 
many people as to how the War came about. 
Numbers in England and on the Continent saw in 
it an exact fulfilment of the prophecies of Scrip- 
ture ; and, from that standpoint, those who are 
said to have brought it about might be described 
as merely the instruments of fate. That the wheels 
of all Governments were rolling towards war was 
forcibly brought to my notice in a conversation 
I had with an English Ambassador in the winter 
of 1909-10. " Men's brains," he said, " have fired 
the world ; have set her rolling at such a pace that 
she is no longer controllable. Into what she will 
eventually hurl herself it is now impossible to fore- 
tell. But that it will be some great disaster is a 
foregone conclusion." 

After a catastrophe there is a gradual return 
to normal. No doubt, in the ex-Kaiser's eyes, a 
return to normal means a return to the Hohen- 

22 



170 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

zollerns. So, though temporarily overwhelmed, 
he has not lost that sense of his own importance 
which is so necessary to him. 

I have laid stress on the ex-Kaiser's vanity 
because I think it is chiefly that very obvious 
characteristic of his that has led the world to say, 
" He's mad ! " 

Many obsessions cause a sort of madness. 
Immense wealth is one of them, genius another, 
and Aristotle plainly tells us that " no great 
genius was without an admixture of madness." 
Religious mania is dangerous. Some of the greatest 
mystics in the Middle Ages are to-day called crazy 
by people who have had neither time nor inclina- 
tion to study their mentality. Revenge can cause 
madness, as in Hamlet (if he was mad) ; and we 
know the common phrase, " Madly in love." 

All these causes can incite and spur to madness, 
but I honestly believe that of all obsessions that 
may turn that way the insanity of vanity takes 
first place. I cannot see that this obsession is 
more pronounced in the ex-Kaiser now than it 
was in the old days ; rather it seems to me 
less so. 

To ridicule (though it had to be heavily 
" veiled ") he was continually being exposed by 
his overweening vanity — due, I suppose, to his 
lack of a sense of humour, or of proportion, or, one 
might add, of seemliness. I have been told he 
once gave some Bibles to a garrison church, in 
each of which he wrote out the texts : "I will 
walk among you and be your God, and ye shall be 
my people " ; " Walk ye in all the ways which I 
have commanded you " ; " Without me ye can 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 171 

do nothing." After each he signed " Wilhelm 
Imperator Rex." 

Had William ii. had a real sense of humour 
who knows but that he would still be ruling in 
Germany ? 

When I contrast the ex-Emperor as he ap- 
peared to his friends at Amerongenwith the Emperor 
as he appeared to the world before the War, 
especially on such extraordinary occasions as his 
visits to Jerusalem and to the Vatican, I am 
inclined to think that he is a very different man 
indeed. He is no longer under the necessity of 
posturing as he was before he fled to Holland. 

He has had many chastening experiences. 
Mere ordinary social intercourse has had an effect. 
Instead of talking from a height, with everybody 
listening as to a godhead, he can now talk like 
any ordinary being, and, though he is listened to 
with a certain amount of deference, he can hear, 
in reply, ordinary people's views — current opinions 
not specially doctored for his benefit. 

In judging William ii. we must not forget that 
since his childhood he has not been robust, and 
in these days of health research and eugenics we 
have learned how greatly the mind is controlled by 
our physical state. When we ask, " Why is the 
mind in this state ? " we must in the answer take 
heredity and environment and physical causes 
into account. 

One seeing the ex-Kaiser in a casual way, and 
not knowing who he was, would describe him as 
" not a physically strong but an exceedingly virile 
man." Environment we have dealt with. As to 
heredity, it cannot be ignored that there was a 



172 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

strain of insanity in his antecedents, but this 
terrible misfortune must never be accounted a 
fault. 

" If not mad, then he must be very wicked." 
But you would find the ex-Kaiser unconscious 
of wickedness. He would ask, " What sort of 
wickedness ? " 

He did not, as an individual, systematically 
break the Ten Commandments. He is very 
religious, as I have shown in preceding articles. 

His private life has not been marked by 
scandals, and he was so continuously in the lime- 
light, not always under friendly eyes, that viola- 
tions of the moral code would not have passed 
without outspoken comment. 

So the charge would be confined to political 
and war wickedness, the causes of which would 
be inordinate ambition, an insatiable desire for 
more power, and, again, vanity. (We are told 
that the only person who does not want " more " 
is an impecunious parson with nine unmarried 
daughters !) He protests that his political aim was 
the good of Germany without the hurt of others ; 
that he tried to avoid the War ; and that such 
atrocities as occurred (and he denies that there 
were many) were the inevitable accompaniments 
of war which he was powerless to prevent and 
certainly did not incite. 

In reading post-war German literature it 
appears that many of their wise and thoughtful 
men were strongly against war, and were, more- 
over, very doubtful that the end would mean 
victory for Germany. 

Walther Rathenau (son of the famous Emil, 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 173 

head of the General Electric Company) has just 
written a book ^ in which the following prophetic 
words — said by him in 1914 — occur : 

" The moment will never come in which the 
Kaiser and his followers, as conquerors of the 
world, will ride through the Brandenburg Gate on 
white horses. On that day history would have 
gone mad." 

Again in 1915, Strobel, a member of the 
" Landtag," said : 

" I recognise quite frankly that a complete 
victory for the Empire would not be in the interests 
of Social Democracy." 

Not only in Germany were views of this sort 
held, but in " Entente " countries also, as witness 
a remark made by one of their leading statesmen : 

" It is perfectly plain to us that there are 
influential circles in Germany to whom nothing 
could be worse than a military victory for 
Ludendorff." 

And so it seems that internal conditions — 
Socialistic and Democratic — had weakened the 
Germans enormously even before our propaganda 
was let loose amongst them ; and thus it was to 
a largely self-corrupted Germany that we, during 
the months July to November 1918, gave the last 
staggering blow which they were morally and 
militarily too weak to withstand, all their divisions 
being far below their full strength. 

Colonel Bauer says of the second Battle of the 
Marne that " it was the first great disaster, and 
the real turning-point of the War," though in this 
connection I was told on good authority that 

1 February 1921. 



174 THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 

many German officers of the higher command 
were convinced of the inabihty of the German 
Army to win the War as early as 1915. 

A writer in the Militdrwochenblatt (mihtary 
paper) summed up the causes of their debacle 
thu^ : " Our defeat has been so complete because 
the forces of the Central Powers have been over- 
taxed and completely exhausted by the pursuit 
of unattainable military and political aims." 

I remember a discussion at Amerongen about 
the horrors which had followed the outbreak of 
war and the things which had happened since — 
mention being made incidentally of the presence, 
so detested by the Germans, of black troops upon 
the Rhine. 

Our talk followed these lines : " Well, after 
all, you brought on the War. The world was 
happy and you stirred it all up. Why did you do 
these terrible things ? " 

Captain von Ilsemann's answer came quickly 
and hotly, with a smashing-down of his fist on 
the table. " No," he flashed, " it was you, it 
was England, who brought on the War." 

It is an article of faith at Doom that England 
made war for commercial profit, and after the 
Armistice was signed continued blockading 
Germany for months, thus ruining the health of 
thousands of women and children. 

This conversation led me to believe that it 
was the blockade which England carried on after 
she had signed which made the feeling against 
our country become more bitter than it was before ; 
their argument being that "blockade" is an ex- 
tremely potent and formidable act of warfare. 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 175 

and that " armistice," on the other hand, means 
a " temporary cessation of hostilities." 

Curiously enough it was America who, in the 
world's history, has carried out the most exten- 
sive blockade ever known before the Great War. 
This was done by the Federals during the Civil 
War in the United States. It extended from the 
Potomac to the Rio Grande, along the Atlantic 
coast, and over the Gulf of Mexico — a distance of 
3000 miles. It lasted for four years. 

And now we will take leave of the Imperial 
exile, so out of tune with the world. 

Many princes have suffered imprisonment, and 
worse, at the hands of an outraged world. Few, 
we think, have undergone it in such pleasant 
circumstances, surrounded by people whose sym- 
pathy cannot be doubted. Pity, therefore, need 
not be accorded to him. 

From Doom his eyes are fixed on Berlin. 
From there, his arresting, vivid, and partly 
pathetic figure feverishly looks to London, to 
Paris, and then back to Germany. Can they do 
without him ? Which is it best (or worst) — ^to 
have him or not to have him ? 

The words of Aristophanes come to the mind 
— " They love, they hate, but cannot do without 
him." 

We wonder ! " Qui vivra verra ! " 



Pedigree tracing the descent of wiluam h. and count godard i^entinck 

from william the silent. 



(4th wife) Louise deColignv = William the SiLENT=(3id vife) CHARLorrE 1 
I I Bourbon 



(ist daugh er) 



Comt« (tc Hunnii 



= Frederick Wil 



Slector of Br;indenburg, 

1620-16SS The "Groat Elector," 

I ',vht) sent the oaks to 

Baron Godard de Reede 

I to rebuild Ameronyen 

Frederick i.. King of Prussia 



(son) Frederick ii., "The Gnat," King of Prussia 
1712-1786 

(nephew) FREDERICK WiLLiAM II. (nephew of Frederick the 
1744-1797 Great, King of Prussia) 

(son) Frederick William hi., King of Prussia 
1 770-1840 



I 
Frederick v. = E l i z a is e t h, daughter of 
Elector Palatine James I. of England and 
granddaughter of Mary 
Queen of Scots. This lady 
lived at my old home, Exton 
Park (now in ruins), with 
Sir James and Lady Harrington, who were 
her guardians. A path still exists which 
is popularly known as the " Queen of 
Bohemia's Walk." This fascinating 
woman, known to history as the "Queen of 
Hearts," was the mother of Prince Rupert 
and Prince Maurice, whose portraits are 
now at Exton — the new house built about 
120 years ago. The old house subsequently 
became the property of the Earls of Gains- 
borough, and it was here that Lady Eliza- 
beth Noel, 1st Duchess of Portland, spent 
her childhood 




V Elizabe' 
of Gainsborough ( 



(3) William, Count Bcnlirick ■■ 
(crentwl Comit of the Empire 
by Charles VI. of Austria), i 
Born in London | 

(eldest son) 



M GusTAVus Fkehekic 



= Bakoniiss Marv UU TUVLI., 
Count Bentinck I granddaugUlcr of anO liiirf 

orAtbloiic 

(2) John Chaklss =Lauy Jbmima dh Riiuuii Ginkki., 
Maj.-Gen., Coldslicim I daughter of sih Karl of Athloiie, 



(3) CUAKLBH AnTIIONV FbRDIM 



, Ki-ng of Prussia (Ik 



(brother) William i., King of Prussia and German Einpen 
1797-1888 



(son) Frederick hi., German Emperc 



William ii., German Emperor and King of Prussia 
Born 1859. Deposed 1918, 



VVilliaui BdUinck had five daughters by b 



iBNBiETTA, daugliter of Rober 
iM'Kenell of Hillhouse. {Se 
IJurke's Landed GcHlry.) 



(2) Count William, 

d. I0I3, "' 

on his I 

sons, 3 daughter 



T = Lady Nobah N0SI-, daughter 
Earl of " ■ ' 



of 3rd Earl of Gainsborough 



(2) Count Charli 



(3) Count I- 
Coldsires 



jNiiV (died of " 
,n War, 1916. 1 
> Guards) 



Count Hei 
' My great-aui 



K Hbbckbriin (3) Count Ciiai 



U) Count CodakubCoun' 
Ex.K:.iKcr's ho... B 

Four Miu, I Jatigh- 



Ex- Kill 

cr, Eliiailc'lli"' 



Kx-Kniscr'n A.D.C. 



C4> Count Arthur, Major, 
Coldstream Guardf. 
Wounded European War 



She subicquenily uianicd Sii Fowcll Bunion, Url, Sht die 



APPENDIX 

I.— OUTSTANDING DATES OF THE EUROPEAN 

WAR 



June 


28 . 


July 


5 • 


3> 


28 . 


J) 


30 or 


Aug. 


I . 




2 


» 




)5 


3 • 


J> 


4 . 


)> 


16 . 


Sept, 


16 . 


Dec. 


24 . 


Feb. 


18 . 


April 


25 . 


May 


7 • 


J5 


23 • 


5> 


25 . 


Aug. 


6 . 


Sept. 


25 . 


Oct. 


14 . 


j> 


19 . 


5J 


28 . 


Dec. 


IS • 


» 


19 . 


» 


25 . 


Feb. 


21 . 


April 


29 . 


May 


31 • 


June 


5 • 


July 


I . 


Aug. 


27 . 



4TH August 1914-9TH November 191 8 

1914 

. Archduke Franz Ferdinand shot at Sarajevo. 

. Kaiser's War Council at Potsdam. 

. Austria declared War on Servia. 

31 . Russia declared War on Germany. 

. Germany declared War on Russia. 

. Germany's Ultimatum to Belgium. 

. Germany declared War on France. 

. Great Britain declared War on Germany. 

. British troops landed in France. 

. First Battle of the Marne begun. 

. First Air Raid on England (Sheringham). 

1915 

. " U " Boat blockade of England. 

. Allied landing in Gallipoli. 

. Lusitania sunk. 

. Italy declared War on Austria. 

. Coalition Cabinet formed. 

. New landing at Suvla Bay. 

. Battle of Loos. 

. Bulgaria at War with Servia. 

. Lord Derby on the 49 Groups. 

. M. Briand, French Premier. 

. Sir Douglas (now Earl) Haig, C.-in-C. in France. 

. Withdrawal from Gallipoli. 

. Turkish defeat at Kut. 

1016 

. Battle of^erdun begun. 

. Fall of Kut-el-Amara. 

, Battle of Jutland. 

. Lord Kitchener, Colonel Fitzgerald, and Mr. O'Byrne 

lost at sea on their way to Russia. 

. Battle of Somme begun. 

. Rumania entered War. 

23 



178 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 



Nov. 


29 . 


Dec. 


5 . 


)> 


7 • 


» 


12 . 


» 


20 . 


Feb. 


I . 


H 


3 ■ 


?> 


24 . 


March 


II . 


jj 


12 . 


5» 


15 . 


April 


6 . 


»> 


9 • 


June 


12 . 


July 


14 . 


>» 


17 . 


Aug. 


29 


Oct. 


24 . 


Nov. 


6 . 



Dec. 



18 

9 
26 



Feb. 


9 • 


35 


16 . 


)> 


21 . 


March 


21 . 


April 


14 . 


jj 


22 . 


May 


27 . 


5J 


31 . 


July 


2 . 


>» 


15 • 


» 


18 . 


Sept. 


12 , 


» 


15 • 


» 


29 . 


» 


30 • 



1916 {continued) 

Grand Fleet under Sir David (now Earl) Beatty. 

Resignation of Mr. Asquith. 

Mr. Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister. 

German " Peace proposals." 

President Wilson's Peace Note. 

1917 

Unrestricted " U " Boat warfare begun. 

America breaks with Germany. 

British take Kut-el-Amara. 

British entered Baghdad. 

Revolution in Russia. 

Abdication of Czar. 

America declared War on Germany. 

Battle of Vimy Ridge begun. 

Abdication of King of Greece. 

Bethmann Hollweg (German Chancellor) dismissed. 

British Royal House dropped their family name of 

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and adopted that of 

» Windsor." 
President Wilson's Note to the Pope (Benedict Xiv.). 
Italian deffeat at Caporetto. 
British stormed Passchendale Ridge- 
British capture Gaza. 
Bolshevist Coup cTHat in Russia (a year before 

the German Revolution, which started at Kiel, 

Nov. 6, 1918). 
General Maude (Coldstream Guards) died in 

Mesopotamia. 
British capture Jerusalem, 
Sir Rosslyn Wemyss (now Lord Wester Wemyss), 

First Sea Lord. 

1918 

First Brest Litvosk Treaty signed. 

General Sir Henry Wilson, Chief of Staff. 

British capture Jericho. 

German offensive in the West. 

General Foch becomes Allied Generalissimo. 

Naval raid on Zeebrugge and Ostend. 

Second German offensive. 

Germans reach the Marne. 

1,000,000 Americans shipped to France. 

Third German offensive. Second Battle of Marne 

begun. (Beginning of the end for Germany.) 
General Foch's counter-attack. ("If we can no 

longer defend, then we must attack." His words.) 
American attack on St. Mihiel. 
Austrian Peace Note. 
Hindenburg Line broken. 
Fall of Damascus. 



APPENDIX 



179 



25 
28 




I 




4 
5 




6 




9 
9 

10 


a.m 


10 


p.m. 


II 


5 a.m. 


II 
16 


p.m 



1918 {continued) 

Oct. 2<, . . General LudendorfF resigned. 

Italians cross Piave. 
Nov. I . . Versailles Conference opened. 

Versailles Armistice agreed. 

Full powers to deal with situation given to Marshal 
Foch. Mr. Wilson's last Note to Germany. 

Revolution at Kiel. 

Foch received German envoys. 

Prince Max of Baden proclaims abdication of Kaiser. 

Kaiser arrives early morning at Eysden, Belgian 
Dutch frontier. 

Count Godard Bentinck asked to give him hospitality 
for three days. 

Armistice terms accepted. 

Kaiser arrives at Amerongen. 

The Echo de Paris published an interview with 
Lord Robert Cecil, who said that " the ex- 
tradition of the Kaiser could not be legally 
demanded, but it might be requested as a 
favour." 
„ 21 . . The Hague (from Times special correspondent) : 
" The Prime Minister to-day declared in refer- 
ence to the ex-Kaiser's stay, that the ex-Kaiser 
is a private person, and that it is at the Govern- 
ment's request that Count Godard Bentinck is 
giving him hospitaHty. This was nothing else 
than the customary national tradition i-ooted 
in the Dutch people's sense of freedom and 
toleration.' " 
„ 28 . . Kaiser abdicates at Amerongen. He remained 
here for eighteen months. In the summer of 
1920 he went to live at Doom, near Utrecht. 

1919 

June 28, at 3.12 p.m. Peace was signed in the Galerie des Glaces, Ver- 
sailles, where, in 1871, the ex- Kaiser's grand- 
father had been declared German Emperor 
after the Franco-Prussian War which had been 
declared by Napoleon ill. on July 18, 1870. 
On the same day Pius ix. confirmed the decree 
of Papal Infallibility. Italian troops took 
possession of Rome on September 20. The 
Pope prorogued the Vatican Council on October 
20, and it has never reassembled. 

A large number of delegates signed the Peace, the first signature 
being that of Hermann Miiller, German Foreign Minister, then came 
Dr. Bell, then the five American delegates, and after them the English 
signed, of whom were Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Bonar Law, Mr. Balfour, 
Lord Milner, and Mr. Barnes, followed by the Dominion signatories. 
Then came the French, of whom was M. Clemenceau, the only man 
of all that company who had been present at the German Peace of 1870. 
Other allied delegates followed, ending with Czecho-Slovakia. 



180 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 



LIST OF KINGS WHO HAVE ABDICATED WITHIN 
THE LAST THOUSAND YEARS 



Only those of the most remarkable Character and the 
greatest political importance are given 



1080 
II 14 

1 142 
1200 
1206 
1306 
1309 

1439 
144I 
1556 
1654 
1669 
1688 
1704 
1724 
1730 
1759 
1795 
1802 
1804 



1808 
1808 

1808 
1808 



1813 
1814 
182I 
1826 
1830 
1831 

1834 
1840 
1840 

1848 
1848 
1848 
1849 

1859 
1866 



Henry IV. of Germany (Emperor). 
Stephen ll. of Hungary. 
Albert of Saxony. 
Lestus V. of Poland. 
Vladislas ill. of Poland. 
Baliol of Scotland. 
Otho of Hungary. 
Eric IX. of Denmark. 
Eric XIII. of Sweden. 
Charles v. (Emperor). 
Christina of Sweden. 
John Cosimer of Poland. 
James 11. of England. 
Frederic Augustus 11. of Poland. 
Philip V. of Spain. 
Victor of Sardinia. 
Charles of Naples. 
Stanislas of Poland. 
Victor of Sardinia. 

Francis ll. of Germany (Emperor). End of " Holy 
Roman Empire." He becomes Emperor of 
Austria only. 

Charles iv. of Spain, in favour of his son. 

„ „ again abdicates in favour of 

Buonapartes. 

Joseph Bupnaparte to take the crown of Spain. 
„ „ on flying before the British from 

Madrid. 

Louis of Holland (Buonaparte). 

Jerome of Westphalia (Buonaparte). 

Napoleon the Great. 

Emmanuel of Sardinia. 

Pedro of Portugal, 

Charles x. of France. 

Pedro of Brazil. 

Dom Miguel of Portugal (by leaving the country). 

William I. of Holland. 

Christina of Spain — Queen Dowager and Queen 
Regent. 

Louis- Philippe of France. 

Louis Charles of Bavaria. 

Ferdinand of Austria. 

Charles Albert of Sardinia. 

Leopold II. of Tuscany. 

Bernard of Saxe-Meiningen. 



APPENDIX 



181 



1870, 


June 


25 


1873, 


Feb. 


II 


1886, 


Sept, 


7 


1889, 


March 


9 


1907, 


July 


19 


1909, 


April 


27 


1909, 


July 


16 , 


I9I0, 


Oct. 


5 


I9I7, 


March 


i 15 


I9I7, 


June 1 


[2, rC' 


instated 11 


920 


1918, 


Oct. 


4 


1918, 


N0V.2 


9 


1918, 


» 


12 . 


1918, 


» 


29 



Isabella ii. of Spain. 
Amadeus of Spain. 
Alexander of Bulgaria. 
Milan of Serbia. 
Emperor of Korea. 
Abdul Hamid 11. (Turkey). 
Muhammed Ali Shah. 
Manoel ^ (Portugal). 
Nicholas ll. (Russia). 
Constantine (Greece). 

Ferdinand (Bulgaria). 
William ii. (Germany). 
Charles (Austria). 
Nicholas (Montenegro).^ 



1 Deprived of throne by Revolutionary coup d'dtat. 

2 In reality, Nov. 28, at Amerongen, Holland. 

3 Was deposed by the Congress Podgoritsa. 



182 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 



II.— CASUALTIES OF THE GREAT WAR 

"What millions died that 



Countries. 


Names of Reigning House 

(Pre-War), 

Showing how German families 

preponderated. 


Dead, includ- 
ing died from 
Wounds and 
Sickness. 


Missing. 


America . . 


President Wilson. 


107,284 


4,912 


Austria . . 


Loraine (Hapsburg female line 
only). 


687,534 


855=283 


Belgium . . 


Saxe-Coburg- Gotha. 


267,000 


10,000 


Britain 


Saxe- Coburg- Gotha. 


851,117 


142,057 


Bulgaria . . 


Saxe- Coburg- Gotha. 


101,224 


10,825 


France . . 


President Poincare. 


1,039,600 


245,900 


Germany . . 


Hohenzollern. 


1,600,000 


721,000 


Greece . . 


Slesvig-Holstein, Sonderburg- 
Glucksburg. 


15,000 


45,000 


Italy . . . 


Savoy, 


462,391 


569,216 


Japan . . . 




300 


3 


Portugal . . 


Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Braganza 
female line only). 


8,367 




Rumania . 


Hohenzollern. 


32,000 


Il6,OQO 


Russia . . . 


Holstein - Gottorp (Romanov 
female line only). 


1,700,000 


2,500,000 


Servia * . . 


Kara Georgovitch. 


707,343 


100,000 


Turkey . . 


Memalik -y- Osmaniye . 


436,974 


103,731 






8,016,134 


5,424,027 




, 


. 


, 



^ Exclusive of Greeks living in Turkey and Asia Minor. 

^ Servia's post-'wa.x population, larger than her 



APPENDIX 



183 



AND SOME OTHER FIGURES 

Caesar might be great." — Thomas Campbell 



Wounded. 


Totals. 


Population. 


1 
Notes. 


191,000 


303,196 


150,253,300 


Republic. 


2,500,000 


4,042,817 


41,221,342 


Austrian Empire since 1804, 
previously part of the 
"Empire." 


140,000 


417,000 


7,423,784 


Kingdom since 1831. 


2,067,442 


2,960,616 


45,516,250 


Style of King of England, first 
used by Egbert, a.d. 828. 


1,152,399 


1,264,448 


4,337,513 


Kingdom since 1887. 


2,560,000 


3,845,500 


39,192,133 


Republic (on and off) since 1793. 


4,064,000 


6,385,000 


62,826,162 


Empire since 1870. 


40,000 


100,000 


2,631,9521 


Constitutional Monarch estab- 
lished 1830. 


953,8S6 


4,385,487 


36,456,437 


United in 1861. 


907 


1,210 


79,058,090 


Has had a reigning dynasty for 
more than 2571 years. 






5,500,000 


Republic since 1910. 


200,000 


648,000 


7,509,009 


Kingdom since 1881. 


4,950,000 


9, 1 50,000 


122,000,000^ 


Tsar : first definitely adopted 
for title of Russian rulers by 
Ivan the Terrible in 1547. 


350,000 


1,157,343 


1,733,865 


Kingdom since 1882. 


407,772 


948,477 


18,053,404 


Empire in Europe since 14th 
century. 


19,577,406 


35,609,094 



2 In Europe without Poland, 
pre-war one, is estimated at 4,690,733. 



184 



THE EX-KAISER IN EXILE 



The following interesting figures are taken from the First 
Annual Report on the Army issued since the War. The 
DATE is April 1921. 

The total number of men recruited in the three kingdoms 
from 4th August 1914 to 11th November 1918 was 4,970,902. 

The contributions of the various countries and the percentage 
of enlistments to population were as follows : 



— . , , «l 




Percentage of 


England . . 


Numbers Recruited. 


Total Population. 


Male Population. 


4,006,158 


11-57 


24-02 


Wales . . . 


272,924 


1 0*96 


21-52 


Scotland . . 


S57,6i8 


11-50 


23-71 


Ireland . . 


134,202 


3-07 


6-14 



Out of the whole Army, 335 culprits were sentenced to death, 
7338 sentenced to penal servitude — 140 for life. 

On 1st October I9I8, including Territorial Force and exclud- 
ing Dominion and Indian troops, the numbers were 3,838,265, of 
whom 147,738 were officers. 

The maximum strength was attained at the beginning of I9I8, 
when the total stood at 3,887,649 — 154,777 being officers, and 
3,732,872 other ranks. 

The casualties among officers were : 



Killed 

Wounded 

Missing 



33,337 

74,082 

9,362 



We thank and bless Thee, Lord, 
For those the brave and true 
Who, eager at their country's call, 
Strong, undismayed, surrendered all. 
Grant them eternal rest." 



PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LTD. EDINBURGH 



